Why anti-abortion advocates are reviving a 19th century sexual purity law

The Comstock Act… is an 1873 anti-obscenity law, named after anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock. The law, which is still on the books, calls for banning the mailing or shipping of “every obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance.” In addition, it specifically outlaws mailing “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” The intent of the law was not expressly about abortion, according to Mary Ziegler, law professor at the University of California, Davis. Instead, it was about what Comstock and his contemporaries called “sexual purity.”