A United States senator who previously worked as a Planned Parenthood executive is taking aim at the Comstock Act in an op-ed attempting to urge the Supreme Court to allow abortion pills to be dispensed through the mail.
According to an entry in Encyclopedia.com:
Although the [Comstock Act, passed in 1873] was amended to delete references to contraceptive devices, it remains on the books today and forbids use of the mails to distribute “obscene” material and anything “which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion….” The act’s constitutionality was upheld in three cases on the grounds that the First Amendment does not protect “obscene” speech (Smith v. United States, 1977; United States v. Reidel, 1971; and Roth v. United States, 1957). However, the courts have not ruled on its provisions regarding abortion-related information, largely because they are not enforced.
Tina Smith wrote for the New York Times that the Comstock Act is a “long discredited, arcane 150-year-old law” that no one took seriously until pro-life conservatives resurrected it. She’s now vowing to have it repealed, solely in an effort to expand abortion.
“I’m prepared to fight back — including by introducing legislation to take away the Comstock Act as a tool to limit reproductive freedom,” she wrote, adding, “As the only former Planned Parenthood executive serving in the Senate, I feel I have a special responsibility to protect not just abortion rights but also abortion access.”
Smith’s biography is steeped in pro-abortion activism. Her father was a Planned Parenthood board member, and she served as vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota from 2003 to 2006. Under her tenure, abortions in Minnesota increased by over 20%, and it became the largest abortion business in the state.
Smith entered politics as Governor Mark Dayton’s chief of staff, before becoming his lieutenant governor. Then, when Senator Al Franken was forced to resign due to sexual misconduct allegations, Planned Parenthood spent over $10 million ensuring Smith got his seat. She’s since earned the moniker “Abortion Senator,” and for good reason; she’s wasted no time promoting Planned Parenthood’s agenda, including voting in favor of late-term abortions committed after children are able to survive outside the womb, and fought against informed consent in abortion, too. More recently, she’s been pressuring retail pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS to dispense abortion pills. She’s made it clear what her priority is: keeping abortion legal and widely accessible.
And it’s for that exact reason that her op-ed is nothing more than a massive conflict of interest masquerading as political analysis. Though Smith does acknowledge her pro-abortion background, she fails to point out how her former employer — Planned Parenthood — stands to lose millions upon millions of dollars. How many of her complaints are legitimate political grievances, and how many are based in making sure Planned Parenthood’s bottom line remains healthy?
