A long-comatose 1873 "anti-vice" law inspired by the nation's most notorious morals crusader, Anthony Comstock (above), is now the basis of a federal court ruling cutting off access to mail-order mifepristone. The pill that is used in more than half of the nation's abortions.
Comstock gained fame as the founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Comstock sought to block access to information about birth control and abortion. He and his followers also campaigned to stamp out “obscene” books, “dirty” pictures, birth control devices, sex toys, and anything else he thought might inflame the nation's genitalia.
Comstock's modus operandi was brutally simple. He and his anti-vice crusade conducted vigilante raids on retailers. After invading stores, they 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 movement to criminalize sex education of any kind, as well as sex toys, racy illustrations and “bad books.”
His efforts were highly successful. Sensing electoral opportunity, politicians quickly became enthusiastic about banning "smut." In 1873, 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 so-called "Comstock Act" defined all forms of sex education, particularly as it pertained 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 over the past century, specifies that it is a crime to send any "obscene" materials through the mail. That is the precedents that the federal judge' relied on in his recent ruling banning mail-order mifepristone.
This prohibition against using the mail created a cushy government job for Comstock. He was appointed "special agent" of the US Post Office with exclusive enforcement powers. He held this position — in essence, as 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 these materials included literally tons of information about birth control. The postal service sometimes even forbade the mailing of anatomy books to medical students.
Comstock's blue-nosing caused all sorts of mischief provoked at least one notorious 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. And the mischief is not over. Presently the Taliban style "Comstock Act" has risen from the dead and become the very law the Texas federal court used in order to ban prescription mail order mifepristone. This despite the Food and Drug Administration determination that this highly effective drug's mail-order dispensation is safe.
.
To further examine these and similar issues, see dozens of articles at www.newfoundations.com
