"The anti-abortion movement is preparing to ban abortion nationwide as soon as a Republican takes the White House, and under a bizarre legal theory, they don’t think they even need congressional approval to do it."
"That’s because anti-choice radicals have begun to argue that an 1873 anti-obscenity law, the Comstock Act, effectively bans the mailing, sale, advertisement or distribution of any drug or implement that can be used to cause an abortion. ...
Now that the US supreme court has thrown out the national abortion right, the anti-choice movement is reviving the long-forgotten law, claiming that the Comstock Act –" (continued in /3)
"named after a man who hunted down pornographers, threw early feminists in jail and bragged about driving abortion providers to suicide – should still be considered good law.
It’s not a solid legal theory, but like a lot of flimsily reasoned, violently sexist and once-fringe arguments, it is now getting a respectful hearing at the supreme court."
As Donegan notes, Alito and Thomas are paving the way for rehabilitation of the Comstock Act.
"Minnesota Senator Tina Smith says she will introduce legislation to repeal the Comstock Act. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because we discussed it when efforts to ban medication abortion first surfaced in the Texas lawsuit that was argued last week in the Supreme Court, the Mifepristone case."
"The 151-year-old measure is a purity law, designed to prevent use of the mails for any obscene material, which includes information about or designed to promote abortion. The Appellants in the Supreme Court, who wanted to end access to Mifepristone, argued that the Act could be used to ban mailing it, which is a key way women get access to it."
As Chris Geidner notes, though the bogus Alliance Defending Freedom mifepristone case may be a bridge too far for the Supremes, Alito and Thomas gave a "flashing warning sign" by asking about the applicability of the Comstock act. The right-wing cabal may be preparing to uphold availability of mifepristone only to bring in their "fix" by the back door via the Comstock act.