Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, some antiabortion advocates have adopted a new goal: getting the government to invoke the Comstock Act.
The 151-year-old law, which bans the mailing of abortion-related materials, had been long forgotten. The Biden administration maintains that it doesn’t apply today.
But a future Republican administration could theoretically say Comstock remains relevant — and use it to crack down on abortion pills, for instance.
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Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) — just tapped as the Republican vice-presidential nominee — appeared to share that view, my colleague Meryl Kornfield and I reported Wednesday night.
What Vance wrote last year: “We demand that you act swiftly and in accordance with the law, shut down all mail-order abortion operations,” the Ohio senator and about 40 fellow Republican lawmakers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023.
The Republicans also urged the Justice Department to potentially prosecute physicians, pharmacists and others “who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws,” citing additional federal laws that apply to criminal conspiracy and money laundering.
Vance’s team didn’t respond to questions Wednesday about whether he still believes the Comstock Act should be invoked for an abortion-pill crackdown or whether he’d discussed the law with former president Donald Trump.
The campaign backdrop
Abortion politics have been Democrats’ strongest issue and Republicans’ biggest weakness since the fall of Roe, with the GOP repeatedly losing on statewide referendums related to abortion access.
It’s also been a tricky issue for Trump, who relied on antiabortion supporters to help win the White House in 2016 — and delivered for those supporters by repeatedly cracking down on abortion access. (Prominent antiabortion activists even cheered Trump as the most antiabortion president in history.)
But in a post-Roe world, Trump is trying to ease his stance to win over moderates and some Republicans. The GOP presidential nominee has repeatedly dodged questions on the issue, including on whether he’d invoke Comstock as president.
Trump told Time Magazine in April that he’d have a statement on Comstock in “two weeks.” That was more than 10 weeks ago.
Biden officials, meanwhile, have been eager to focus attention on the law — even as they decry it.
“Republican elected officials’ dangerous interpretation of the Comstock Act is part of their extreme agenda to ban abortion nationwide,” Jen Klein, the director of the White House’s gender policy council, said in a statement.
The key question: Does Vance’s 2023 embrace of Comstock signal what he and Trump would do in 2025, if elected?
Democrats certainly think so.
“The threat that a future Trump-Vance administration will misuse Comstock to ban abortion nationwide is now a five-alarm fire,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who is leading an effort to repeal the Comstock Act’s abortion provisions in Congress.
It’s also worth noting that as vice president, Mike Pence shaped much of the Trump administration’s policy initiatives, including in health care, with the president largely disinterested in many policy details.
Would Vance be similarly hands-on? In his primetime remarks at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, the VP nominee spoke about several issues that have marked his short political career, such as the drug addiction that affected his family. But the Ohio senator — who campaigned two years ago on being “100 percent pro-life” — didn’t touch abortion.
The 151-year-old law, which bans the mailing of abortion-related materials, had been long forgotten. The Biden administration maintains that it doesn’t apply today.
But a future Republican administration could theoretically say Comstock remains relevant — and use it to crack down on abortion pills, for instance.
🧘
Follow Health & wellness
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) — just tapped as the Republican vice-presidential nominee — appeared to share that view, my colleague Meryl Kornfield and I reported Wednesday night.
What Vance wrote last year: “We demand that you act swiftly and in accordance with the law, shut down all mail-order abortion operations,” the Ohio senator and about 40 fellow Republican lawmakers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023.
The Republicans also urged the Justice Department to potentially prosecute physicians, pharmacists and others “who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws,” citing additional federal laws that apply to criminal conspiracy and money laundering.
Vance’s team didn’t respond to questions Wednesday about whether he still believes the Comstock Act should be invoked for an abortion-pill crackdown or whether he’d discussed the law with former president Donald Trump.
The campaign backdrop
Abortion politics have been Democrats’ strongest issue and Republicans’ biggest weakness since the fall of Roe, with the GOP repeatedly losing on statewide referendums related to abortion access.
It’s also been a tricky issue for Trump, who relied on antiabortion supporters to help win the White House in 2016 — and delivered for those supporters by repeatedly cracking down on abortion access. (Prominent antiabortion activists even cheered Trump as the most antiabortion president in history.)
But in a post-Roe world, Trump is trying to ease his stance to win over moderates and some Republicans. The GOP presidential nominee has repeatedly dodged questions on the issue, including on whether he’d invoke Comstock as president.
Trump told Time Magazine in April that he’d have a statement on Comstock in “two weeks.” That was more than 10 weeks ago.
Biden officials, meanwhile, have been eager to focus attention on the law — even as they decry it.
“Republican elected officials’ dangerous interpretation of the Comstock Act is part of their extreme agenda to ban abortion nationwide,” Jen Klein, the director of the White House’s gender policy council, said in a statement.
The key question: Does Vance’s 2023 embrace of Comstock signal what he and Trump would do in 2025, if elected?
Democrats certainly think so.
“The threat that a future Trump-Vance administration will misuse Comstock to ban abortion nationwide is now a five-alarm fire,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who is leading an effort to repeal the Comstock Act’s abortion provisions in Congress.
It’s also worth noting that as vice president, Mike Pence shaped much of the Trump administration’s policy initiatives, including in health care, with the president largely disinterested in many policy details.
Would Vance be similarly hands-on? In his primetime remarks at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, the VP nominee spoke about several issues that have marked his short political career, such as the drug addiction that affected his family. But the Ohio senator — who campaigned two years ago on being “100 percent pro-life” — didn’t touch abortion.
