The story behind Heritage’s claim begins in the 19th century, with the passage of a sexual purity law that was interpreted to make it a crime to mail or receive items intended, designed, or adapted for abortion. Exactly what the Comstock Act said or meant, not least when it came to abortion, was unclear at the time it passed. States were then, for the first time, criminalizing abortion early in pregnancy, with life exceptions. Members of Congress seemed unsure whether the act covered “lawful” or medically indicated abortion.

In the years since, courts have interpreted the Comstock Act not as a flat ban on all abortions. By the 1930s, courts were interpreting the law as having a sort of implied health exception that applied to physicians and those transacting with them. No one has mentioned the statute in the context of abortion for decades.

  • @DrPop
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    397 months ago

    Why are we basing our laws around healthcare on an act made in the 1800s?

    • spaceghotiOP
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      407 months ago

      Because it accurately represents the world they want us all to live in.

    • Flying Squid
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      217 months ago

      Same reason we base our gun laws on a constitutional amendment made when guns were muzzle-loaders.

  • snownyte
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    187 months ago

    Then the next Republican president after this Republican president will “Have a plan to extort and rip away LGBTQ rights once and for all without approval” and then the next Republican president after that one will have another plan to expand religious influence across the country. Any step they’ll take, to send us back to a time where in their world view, women were just good at popping babies, gays and blacks are the butt of jokes all of the time, God and only one God was all we needed and the idea of being smarter than another is just a crime in of itself.

    It’s not Idiocracy, people. It’s true damnation in reality.

  • @BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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    37 months ago

    See LIBTARDS! It WAS a State’s Rights Issue! And if I as a Republican could read I would STILL call it a State’s Right issue because I HATE women!

  • Melody Fwygon
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    23 months ago

    The best way to prevent misuse of the Comstock Act is to hit them where it hurts. Find out what items their funders sell or trade in the most; then find logical ways to link it to sex or abortion.

    Pretty soon you’ll gum up all trade and they will cry for mercy.