A long-comatose 1873 "anti-vice" law inspired by the nation's notorious morals crusader, Anthony Comstock, is now the basis of a federal court ruling potentially cutting off access to mail-order mifepristone. That's the pill that can be accessed by mail and is used in more than half of the nation's abortions — including in states where abortion is now banned.
Who was Anthony Comstock? He gained initial fame as the founder of the influential New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. The goal of Comstock’s chief crusade was blocking access to information about birth control and abortion. But he also campaigned to stamp out “obscene” books, “dirty” pictures, birth control devices, sex toys, and anything else he thought might excite the nation's genitalia.
Comstock kicked off his anti-vice crusade by conducting vigilante raids on retailers. He and his followers raided stores and brazenly "confiscated" and handed over to police: “bad books” and “articles made of rubber for immoral purposes and used by both sexes.” Then, emboldened by the success of this extra-legal campaign, Comstock launched a national political movement to criminalize sex education of any kind, plus sex toys, racy illustrations and “bad books.”
His efforts were highly successful. Sensing electoral opportunity, politicians quickly became enthusiastic about banning "smut." Subsequently, in 1873, and largely in response to Comstoack's crusade, Congress passed, without debate, the "Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use." This "Comstock Act" defined all forms of sex education, particularly as it pertains to preventing or interrupting conception, as "obscene. "
Here is an excerpt from that statute: "Whoever … shall sell, or lend, or give away, or in any manner exhibit … or shall otherwise publish … or shall have in his possession, any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, drawing or other representation, … or instrument … of an immoral nature, or any drug or medicine, or any article whatever, for the prevention of conception, or for causing unlawful abortion, or shall advertise the same for sale, … shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, he shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary for not less than six months nor more than five years for each offense, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, with costs of court." (That's not less than $2,200 and not more than $58,000 in today's dollars.)
This federal law, largely ignored for the past century, also specifies that it is a crime to send any "obscene" materials through the mail. That provision created an official government job for Comstock. He was appointed a "special agent" of the US Post Office with exclusive enforcement powers. He held this position — in essence, America’s sexual morality czar — for the next 42 years!
In this capacity Comstock was empowered to prosecute anyone sending information about birth control, or committing any other "sexual offenses,” via the mail. Were many actually prosecuted? Upon retirement Comstock boasted that he had victoriously brought charges against more than 3,600 defendants and destroyed 160 tons of "sexual materials." And those materials included tons of information about birth control.
A crusading Comstock even provoked at least one rather well known suicide. Feminist Ida Craddock killed herself rather than be imprisoned for sending sex education information via the mail. Her suicide note reads, in part, “I am taking my life because a judge, at the instigation of Anthony Comstock, has declared me guilty of a crime I did not commit -- the circulation of obscene literature. Perhaps it may be that in my death, more than in my life, the American people may be shocked into investigating the dreadful state of affairs which permits that unctuous sexual hypocrite Anthony Comstock to wax fat and arrogant and to trample upon the liberties of the people, invading, in my own case, both my right to freedom of religion and to freedom of the press."
In consequence of Comstock's puritanism, hundreds found themselves in federal prison. Now the Taliban style "Comstock Act" is the very law the Texas federal court raised, zombi-like, from the dead in order to ban prescription mail order mifepristone despite the Food and Drug Administration determination that this form of dispensation is safe.
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