Out of fear of a potential future Donald Trump presidency, pro-abortion Democrats announced on Thursday that they introduced a bill to protect mail-order abortion pills. The bill would repeal the federal Comstock Act, an anti-obscenity law that has been in place for 150 years that prevents abortion items and drugs from being shipped through the U.S. Postal Service.
“It’s quite astounding. Democrats in Congress must wake up every day wondering what else they can do to make it easier to end the lives of unborn children,” Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, told Catholic News Agency (CNA). “These are the same people trying to shut down pregnancy centers, trying to block pregnancy centers from online search engines, and vilifying the abortion pill reversal process. This latest effort is one more attempt not to help women and babies but instead an effort to make it easier to kill preborn babies.”
Sponsor of the bill, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who was vice president at Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota from 2003-2006, said in a press release that she wants to repeal the act because “anti-choice extremists want to misuse” it. She called the Comstock Act a “zombie law.” According to CNA, the portion of the act that prohibits the making of abortion-inducing items has not been enforced since 1973, when the Supreme Court forced legalized abortion in every state in its Roe v. Wade decision.
“Now that Trump has overturned Roe, a future Republican administration could try to misapply this 150-year-old Comstock law to deny American women their rights, even in states where abortion rights are protected by state law,” said Smith. She claimed it was too “dangerous” to keep the Comstock Act in place.
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In reality, sending abortion drugs and items through the mail is dangerous for women. Abortion groups are sending abortion drugs to women who have not undergone a physical exam by a doctor, putting them at increased risk of complications including hemorrhaging, incomplete abortion, and infection. The abortion pill regimen is only approved through 10 weeks and should not be taken if a woman is experiencing an ectopic pregnancy — two things she can’t be sure of without an exam. The greater the gestational age of the baby, the more likely the abortion pill is to fail. Abortion groups are even encouraging women to obtain abortion drugs before they are pregnant.
The FDA began allowing abortion drugs to be sent through the mail on a temporary basis in April 2021. That decision was made permanent the following December.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America told CNA that the attempt to repeal the Comstock Act likely won’t be successful this year since Republicans control the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The bill is unlikely to go anywhere given the makeup of the House and Senate,” a spokesman explained.
