Comstock

The enforcement of the Comstock Act could ban the mailing of abortion pills nationwide, even in states where abortion remains legal.

The document argues that prosecutors can revive the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law that criminalized the mailing of "obscene" materials, which were broadly defined to cover all of these items.

While trying to enforce the Comstock Act would spark significant legal challenges, it is a much more direct route to shutting down the infrastructure these shield providers have built, Ziegler said.

Democrats should repeal the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that conservatives want to use to prohibit any shipment of the drugs used for medically induced abortions.

At issue is how antiabortion government officials could revive and interpret the Comstock Act, a federal law that once banned the mailing of “obscene” materials related to abortions.