A coalition of advocacy organizations despatched a letter to Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week urging him to carry a vote on a proposal geared toward guarding towards a future Trump administration from reviving a long-dormant legislation to successfully ban abortion.
The letter, which was shared completely with The Hill, was signed by varied abortion-rights and court-reform teams.
“The individuals Trump has lined up for a future administration are eager to weaponize the Comstock Act as soon as they can,” the letter reads. “We must stop them now.”
“We urge you to force abortion opponents to show their hand,” the group continued. “Put the Stop Comstock Act up for a vote and block them from weaponizing this dangerous law before it is too late.”
The Cease Comstock Act, which was launched by Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) in June, seeks to repeal the abortion provisions of the 1873 federal legislation that bans abortion-related supplies from being despatched by way of the mail.
Some specialists say it’s been rendered out of date, however abortion-rights advocates have sounded the alarm bell {that a} Republican administration may try and leverage the legislation to successfully ban abortion with out Congressional motion.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, two of the Supreme Courtroom’s main conservatives, have signaled a willingness to revive the statute.
“Ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans have worked tirelessly in state after state to restrict and eliminate access to abortion,” the letter reads. “But they intend to go even further: In published interviews and in the Project 2025 blueprint for a future Trump administration, they make it clear that they will misapply the Comstock Act of 1873 to ban abortion nationwide.”
The Hill has reached out to Schumer’s workplace for remark.
The signatories comprise Take Again the Courtroom Motion Fund, Healthcare Throughout Borders, Abortion Entry Entrance, Legal professionals for Good Authorities, UltraViolet Motion, Entry Reproductive Justice, Heart for Genetics and Society, Chicago Girls’s AIDS Mission, Well being Not Prisons Collective, Optimistic Girls’s Community-USA and Good Well being Group Programmes.
The previous president in current weeks has sought to pivot on abortion, together with by saying Mission 2025’s abortion proposals go “way too far.” His working mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), has additionally instructed Trump would veto a nationwide abortion ban.
“Trump’s daily flip-flopping and desperate attempts to create distance from his own anti-abortion record tell us two things: first, that he knows the American people don’t support his party’s crusade to ban abortion nationwide; and second, that he’s scared,” stated Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of Take Again the Courtroom Motion Fund, in an announcement.
“But we all know where Trump and Republican lawmakers will land when push comes to shove,” she added.
