Congress seeks to repeal Comstock Act

Archaic law forbids the mailing of abortifacients. It has never been used to restrict modern-day medication.

As many who have been following the news know, an antiquated law that forbade birth control and abortifacients from being sent through the post office has been weaponized by Republican operatives who want to use it to prevent modern-day abortion prescriptions from being mailed to women. 

Now, liberals in Congress want to enact laws that repeal it as a way to protect reproductive rights throughout the country. Congresswoman Cori Bush introduced the Stop Comstock Act last month to address the impending problem if or when a Republican assumes the Oval Office. 

I spoke with Kirsten Moore, Director of the Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project, about its importance. The Comstock Act is a federal bill that applies to all 50 states. Even if the pill is manufactured and delivered to New York, Illinois, or California but then sent to clinicians and pharmacies in states where it’s legal, it would violate the Act. The question remains whether the Postal Service would or could investigate companies that violate the Comstock Act and then pursue federal charges against them. 

“It kind of boggles the mind to think of every piece of mail being scrutinized,” Moore said. 

Anthony Comstock was a puritanical reformer who targeted obscene literature and abortionists during his time. Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, which was given quasi-police powers to investigate people who distributed obscene materials. They also went after those who mailed contraceptives. 

Congress enacted the Comstock Act in 1873, an amendment to the postal code that forbids the mailing of abortifacients. Comstock was appointed as an inspector for the Post Office. He pursued many people who violated the laws after being tipped off by people who had sought to catch those who violated them. 

It wasn’t until Margaret Sanger and her husband, William Sanger, began the modern birth control movement that these laws were challenged and struck down eventually through decades of advocacy on their part and through legal challenges. 

Birth control access became a federal right later, first for married couples in Griswold v. Connecticut and later for single people in Eisenstadt v. Baird. The mailing of contraceptives and birth control pills then became legal. At the time, there hadn’t been a prescription option for abortion. That didn’t arrive until the 1990s with the introduction of RU-486. From then on, abortion pills became as controversial as surgical procedures that accomplished the same thing. 

While Rep. Bush and Rep. Becca Balint have championed efforts in the house to repeal Comstock, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith has done it in the other chamber. 

Recently, conservative thinkers released Project 2025, a manifesto that lays out all the policies and strategies they hope former President Donald Trump will enact if he returns to office. Among them, it suggested that the Attorney General and FBI enforce the Comstock laws in conjunction with the postal service. 

Under President Joe Biden, the FDA loosened the in-person dispensing requirement for abortion medication. So, mailing is now an option after telehealth consultations. The Supreme Court recently allowed abortion medication to be still accessible in a decision that opened the door for executive limitations on the drug should a Republican president want to do so. 

Expect this to continue to be controversial here and elsewhere. I plan on covering the evolution of abortion medication law both in America and elsewhere in the world in future newsletters. Stay tuned.