1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:08,559 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren Vogelbaum. 2 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 1: Here It's impossible to say exactly what Anthony Comstock would 3 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:17,599 Speaker 1: have thought about life in the US today, but this 4 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: nineteenth century morality crusader has become surprisingly influential in twenty 5 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:26,800 Speaker 1: first century America. Born in eighteen forty four, Comstock was 6 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: a Civil War veteran, a religious sellate, and enthusiastic censor 7 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:36,720 Speaker 1: of reading material. In eighteen seventy three, Comstock founded the 8 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,199 Speaker 1: New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, a society 9 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: whose crest bore two images, a man in a top 10 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:45,559 Speaker 1: hatch shoving another man into a jail cell and a 11 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:50,240 Speaker 1: gentleman tossing a pile of books onto a pyre. That year, 12 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: Comstock also successfully lobbied Congress to pass what's known as 13 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: the Comstock Act, a law prohibiting the possession, sale, distribution, 14 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: or mailing of materials that are quote obscene, lewd, lascivious, 15 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: and decent, filthy, or vile, which could include obvious things 16 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: like pornographic books or sex toys, but also a wider 17 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: scope of things like personal letters with sexual content or 18 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 1: contraceptive or abortive substances. Violation of the Comstock Act was 19 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:25,800 Speaker 1: punishable with fines and prison sentences. After Comstock's anti Obscenity 20 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:28,360 Speaker 1: Bill was signed, he was assigned as a special Agent 21 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: and inspector to the US Postal Office, giving him power 22 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: to enforce the law. Under court order, Comstock seized and 23 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:41,119 Speaker 1: burned millions of books, newspapers, pamphlets, photographs, and other printed materials, 24 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: many of them educational documents about then taboo topics like 25 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: sexual health, atheism, homosexuality, contraception, abortion, and women's rights. Under 26 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: the Comstock Act, the first violation imposed a five year 27 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:59,160 Speaker 1: maximum prison sentence, while subsequent violations could rack up ten years. 28 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 1: Over three thousand people were arrested under the law, serving 29 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,960 Speaker 1: what added up to six hundred years in prison. Comstock 30 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,320 Speaker 1: acted as personal and political nemesis to early feminists like 31 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:14,520 Speaker 1: Emma Goldman and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. He was 32 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:16,960 Speaker 1: even known to boast about the number of libertines he 33 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: drove to suicide. Although the Comstock Act lost a lot 34 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: of its potency after its author's death in nineteen fifteen, 35 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: it was actively enforced until the nineteen thirties. A court 36 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: case that helped bring it down, centered on the literary 37 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,000 Speaker 1: value of James Joyce's novel Ulysses as a whole, instead 38 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 1: of declaring it obscene because of a few passages. Another 39 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: case during that decade made it legal for doctors to 40 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:46,440 Speaker 1: send birth control information and devices through the mail. Congress 41 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:48,760 Speaker 1: and the Supreme Court removed all restrictions in the Act 42 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,359 Speaker 1: regarding contraception in nineteen seventy one and nineteen seventy two, 43 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: the years just before the legislation's hundredth birthday, but the 44 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: Act was never completely repealed, and no, notably, it still 45 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: includes language about abortion related materials, and that's why the 46 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,200 Speaker 1: Comstock Act of eighteen seventy three is having a bit 47 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 1: of a renaissance now one hundred and fifty years after 48 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:18,079 Speaker 1: its passage. After the US Supreme Court overruled Roe v. 49 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: Wade in June of twenty twenty two, anti abortion activists 50 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:25,320 Speaker 1: cast around for some piece of legislation that could criminalize 51 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: the distribution of the abortion drug mif ofpristone, the drug 52 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:31,919 Speaker 1: currently used in more than half of abortions in the 53 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 1: United States. A block's a hormone that fertilized eggs need 54 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: in order to stick to the uterine lining. What these 55 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: activists found was this dormant Victorian era curiosity of a 56 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: law that was used generations ago to ban everything from 57 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: educational pamphlets to fine art. Nobody that we know of 58 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:54,160 Speaker 1: has yet attempted to use the Comstock Act as a 59 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:58,560 Speaker 1: mechanism for banning the interstate shipment of sexually explicit magazines 60 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: and books, or for block any of the pornography websites 61 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: on today's Internet, but it has been revived by anti 62 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,280 Speaker 1: abortion groups and states looking to prevent the interstate shipment 63 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 1: off pristone. Although the reversal of Roe v. Wade ended 64 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:17,239 Speaker 1: the right to abortions for all Americans, the Supreme Court 65 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: left the decision of whether to permit abortions to each state. 66 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,760 Speaker 1: A Texas, for instance, banned most abortions immediately after the 67 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruling, but in other states, both in clinic 68 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: and abortion by pill remain completely legal, and anyone can 69 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:37,680 Speaker 1: order MiFi pristone through the mail. The Comstock Act still 70 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:41,320 Speaker 1: contains language prohibiting the mailing of quote any article or 71 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:44,799 Speaker 1: thing designed or intended for the procuring of an abortion. 72 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:49,599 Speaker 1: The Justice Department clarified in early January of twenty twenty 73 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:52,119 Speaker 1: three that the Comstock Act does not prohibit the mailing 74 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: of abortion pills quote where the sender lacks the intent 75 00:04:55,720 --> 00:05:01,320 Speaker 1: that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully. Nonetheless. 76 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:05,239 Speaker 1: In February of twenty twenty three, twenty Republican lawmakers used 77 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:08,760 Speaker 1: the Act in letters written to CVS and Walgreen's pharmacies, 78 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:12,119 Speaker 1: threatening them with legal action if they began distributing the drug, 79 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: and the Act is now at the heart of multiple 80 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: court cases attempting to ban abortions. One that just went 81 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:22,239 Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court this month December of twenty twenty 82 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: three is based on an anti abortion activist turned district 83 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: court judge in Texas who ordered a hold on federal 84 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:33,400 Speaker 1: approval of mif pristone back in April. His judgment came 85 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 1: in a case citing a hypothetical situation in which a 86 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,080 Speaker 1: doctor might have to treat a patient experiencing complications from 87 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:43,720 Speaker 1: taking methi pristone, and in doing so, the doctor might 88 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:48,560 Speaker 1: experience trauma from completing the patient's abortion. A note that 89 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: mif pristone is incredibly safe. It's less likely to cause 90 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:57,240 Speaker 1: problems than thailanol, but this judge cited the Comstock Act 91 00:05:57,279 --> 00:06:00,360 Speaker 1: in his opinion, a putting forth that it renders all 92 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:06,880 Speaker 1: mailed abortion materials and thus all abortions illegal. In another case, 93 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:10,200 Speaker 1: beginning in late twenty twenty two, four county governments in 94 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: New Mexico passed local ordinances upholding the Comstock Act's ban 95 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: on mailed abortion materials. The state governor, legislature, and Attorney 96 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,479 Speaker 1: general have been working to get the New Mexico Supreme 97 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: Court to strike the ordinances down based on a new 98 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:28,480 Speaker 1: state law preventing interference with any person's access to or 99 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 1: use of reproductive healthcare. It seems likely that the court 100 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:37,640 Speaker 1: will indeed strike down these ordinances, but for now there 101 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,599 Speaker 1: is no telling whether the Comstock Act is strong enough 102 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 1: to stand up to twenty first century American politics, and 103 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:47,120 Speaker 1: only time will tell what ultimate influence it will have. 104 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article how is a 105 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: nineteenth century of synity law being used to ban the 106 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:00,960 Speaker 1: abortion pill? On HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Justin Shields. 107 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:03,600 Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership 108 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. 109 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, 110 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.