{"id":320114,"date":"2024-10-27T10:47:46","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T15:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=320114"},"modified":"2024-10-25T16:26:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T21:26:34","slug":"showdown-abortion-laws-supreme-court-battle-comstock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/showdown-abortion-laws-supreme-court-battle-comstock\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘showdown’ of sort is happening over abortion laws, and it could lead to a Supreme Court battle"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

A Comstock Act showdown could lead to a United States Supreme Court battle over abortion as states pressure various Courts to enforce the federal law, which prohibits<\/a> the mailing of \u201cany article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing [that] may, or can, be used or applied for producing abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, abortion pills are flooding into states that restrict abortion, sent illegally from abortion providers in outside states who are protected under so-called ‘shield laws’. As of August 2024, the Williams Institute claimed<\/a> there are “23 states and Washington, D.C.” which “have shield law protections related to reproductive health care.”<\/p>\n

DOJ “memorandum” focuses on illegal intent of sender<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Comstock Act should be applied where the sender “intends [the items] to be used unlawfully\u201d despite a 2022<\/a> Department of Justice (DOJ) Memorandum’s claim to the contrary.<\/p>\n

In December of 2022, a “Memorandum Opinion for the General Counsel United States Postal Service” authored by\u00a0 the Assistant AG for the Office of Legal Counsel, Christopher H. Schroeder<\/a>, attempted to answer “whether section 1461 of title 18 of the United States Code” (otherwise known as the Federal Comstock Act) “prohibits the mailing of mifepristone and misoprostol…”<\/p>\n

That slip opinion<\/a> argued that the long-held Comstock Act did not apply where \u201cthe sender lacks the intent that the recipient will use them unlawfully.\u201d This key phrase, “intends them to be used unlawfully\u201d appears to indicate that the Comstock Act could be applicable when the sender mails abortion-inducing drugs where they are<\/em> intended to be used “unlawfully.”<\/p>\n

Footnotes in the DOJ’s 2022 memorandum on the Comstock Act suggested that the “sender’s intent” is the focus of the law, while also acknowledging that “some states have independently enacted laws to restrict the mailing of these drugs for abortion purposes within their jurisdiction.”<\/p>\n

Despite this distinction, Schroeder’s memorandum claimed that because abortion-inducing drugs could have other uses, the \u201cmere mailing of such drugs to a particular jurisdiction is an insufficient basis for concluding that the sender intends them to be used unlawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Federal law does not prohibit the use of mifepristone and misoprostol for producing abortions…” the DOJ opinion suggested. “This is true even when the drugs would be delivered to an address in a jurisdiction with restrictive abortion laws, because women who receive the drugs in all fifty states may, at least in some circumstances, lawfully use mifepristone and misoprostol to induce an abortion.”<\/p>\n

As such, the DOJ’s opinion stated that “those sending or delivering mifepristone and misoprostol typically will lack complete knowledge of how the recipients intend to use them and whether that use is unlawful under relevant law.”<\/p>\n

The only problem with this statement is that abortion providers in multiple states are admittedly<\/em> shipping the drugs “unlawfully” into states that prohibit them or restrict telehealth dispensing.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\ud83d\udea8PLEASE SHARE\ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n

Do you live in a state that bans abortions? With the help of mail-forwarding, you can still get safe, effective abortion pills from a doctor in days. <\/p>\n

RT this thread to spread the word\u2014so the people who need help learn how they can get it: pic.twitter.com\/55kdyLGFCi<\/a><\/p>\n

— mayday.health (@HealthMayday) June 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n