Conservative Justices Resurrect the Comstock Act, Threatening Abortion Access Nationwide - Ms.

[justaprogressive]

On May 1, the New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the mailing of mifepristone, a common abortion medication. (The pill is also used in miscarriage care; has shown promise in treating fibroids, endometriosis, some cancers, depression and chronic inflammatory illnesses; and is currently being studied as a once-weekly contraceptive.) Their ruling restricted distribution and use of the medication to in-person clinic visits only, even as the number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics has continued to shutter over the past year.

Thankfully, on Thursday, May 14 (albeit 30 minutes past their self‑imposed deadline), the Supreme Court stayed the Fifth Circuit’s ruling and, pending further litigation, preserved mail‑order access to and telemedicine oversight of abortion medication.

But the Court was not unanimous. Among the dissenters, Justice Clarence Thomas explicitly invoked the Comstock Act as precedent for the Fifth Circuit’s decision, writing: “It is a criminal offense to ship mifepristone for use in abortions. The Comstock Act bans using ‘the mails’ to ship any ‘drug … for producing abortion.’” He argued that Louisiana’s claim—that mifepristone is being shipped into a state that has banned abortion—“violates the Comstock Act.”

The Comstock Act of 1873—named after the eponymous religious activist Anthony Comstock who founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice—restricted the distribution of contraceptives and abortion-related items, classifying them as “obscene.” After extensive lobbying from Comstock and others who sought to promote Christian morality through legislation, Congress passed the Comstock Act on March 3, 1873.

https://msmagazine.com/2026/05/21/comstock-act-supreme-court-clarence-thomas-mifepristone-fifth-circuit/]