In this op-ed, Rachael Klarman and Will Dobbs-Allsopp of Governing for Impact explain the threat posed to abortion rights by a little-known 19th century law, the Comstock Act.

BY RACHAEL KLARMAN AND WILL DOBBS-ALLSOPP
FEBRUARY 7, 2024

The 2024 presidential election is officially underway, yet the race’s gravest stake has received alarmingly little attention: Prominent conservatives have a plan for the next anti-choice president to ban abortion nationwide without an act of Congress—and it may well succeed.

Their secret weapon is the long-dormant Comstock Act, a 19th century law still on the books, which states that to ship, carry, or receive “any drug, medicine, article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion” would be a federal crime. If your eyes are blinking in disbelief, we felt similarly when we first read the statute — though organizers and writers have been trying to draw attention to the threat for the past several months. Given the riotous state of American abortion politics, how can nationwide restrictions potentially already exist in federal law, yet receive so little mainstream attention?

Continued: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/comstock-abortion-secret-weapon-oped