Executive Director and retired OB/GYN Dr. Lloyd Holm has written another fascinating article regarding The Comstock Act and it’s affect on the current case before SCOTUS, FDA v. Alliance Hippocratic Medicine. Here’s a small excerpt:
“At last Tuesday’s oral arguments both Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas referenced the Comstock Act. The Comstock Act, first passed by Congress in 1873, forbids the mailing of obscene, lewd, or lascivious, immoral, or indecent publications through the mail, as well as contraceptive or abortive devices.
It is not as if this act lay hidden in The Congressional Record unmolested as the 20th century evolved into the 21st century. In fact, in 1936, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in United States v. One Package, that physicians could legally mail birth control devises through the postal service.
And then in 1996, a little over twenty years after the passage of Roe v. Wade, the Comstock Cleanup Act was introduced in the 105th Congress by Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank with the intent of repealing the ban on transportation or mailing of any material intended to produce an abortion. The proposed legislation failed to receive a vote and was never reintroduced again.”
Read the full article here: https://pregnancyhelpnews.com/the-comstock-act-hyperbole-and-common-sense
