Opinion: Trump’s allies say they’ll enforce the Comstock Act. Believe them.

  • 📰 sltrib
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 47 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 22%
  • Publisher: 61%

Law Law Headlines News

Law Law Latest News,Law Law Headlines

Until the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, it was hard for feminists to get Americans to take the threat of losing the constitutional right to abortion seriously.

The birth control activist Margaret Sanger, right, who was jailed in 1916 on charges of violating the Comstock obscenity laws. It’s not just that laws from the 1800s shouldn’t be brought back to life, but that if Biden isn’t re-elected, they could be, Michelle Goldberg writes.

But with Roe overturned, some in Donald Trump’s orbit see a chance to reanimate Comstock, using it to ban medication abortion — and maybe surgical abortion as well — without passing new federal legislation. Conservatives know this would be enormously unpopular, which is probably why, when they talk about Comstock at all, they often refer to it by its criminal code numbers rather than its common name. Democrats, by contrast, need to be doing everything possible to make “Comstock” a household word. That’s why they should champion a bill introduced by Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., on Thursday to overhaul the Comstock Act.

But getting people to believe them is a challenge. A substantial number of voters in swing states don’t even understand the role Trump played in Roe’s demise: According to a New York Times poll released last month, 17% of them blame Biden, since the ruling happened during his presidency.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 316. in LAW

Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Dems Introduce the ‘Stop Comstock Act’ to Repeal Abortion Sections of 1873 LawSince 2007, Jezebel has been the Internet's most treasured source for everything celebrities, sex, and politics...with teeth.
Source: Jezebel - 🏆 153. / 63 Read more »