In his recent testimony before the Senate, U.S. Attorney General appointee Todd Blanche committed to restricting access to medication abortion as the new head of the Department of Justice (DOJ). When asked about telehealth care for abortion, he testified he would “commit our [the Department of Justice’s] resources to stopping this”. (1) Later, he also vowed to “ensure the faithful enforcement of the Comstock Act and other federal pro-life acts” in order to restrict medication abortion access (2).

Blanche’s testimony echoes the dangerous rhetoric of the anti-abortion leaders and groups that have long attempted to weaponize a Victorian-era policy to implement backdoor-abortion bans. The Comstock Act is an 1873 anti-obscenity law that makes it a federal crime to mail or sell “obscene materials,” which can include items used in abortion care. The Comstock Act was originally intended to also restrict the distribution of birth control, an aspect of the law that was repealed in 1971 (3). What’s important is that Comstock still has legal standing (3).

This is not the first time that anti-abortion leaders and groups have threatened to use the Comstock Act to restrict abortion access. Since taking office, Trump has been vague about his plans on whether to enforce Comstock (3). Project 2025 laid out plans to enforce the law for the purposes of restricting abortion access (3). In a recent legal battle that reached the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas cited the Comstock Act as precedent to ban the mailing of mifepristone nationwide (4). And, anti-abortion groups like Students for Life of America have lobbied Trump officials to enforce the Comstock Act since he took office (5).

For anti-abortion extremists, The Comstock Act is the perfect gateway to a national abortion ban. In practice, The Comstock Act would essentially make it illegal not only for abortion seekers to access telehealth care, which makes up 63% of abortions nationwide (5), but would also present legal obstacles for abortion clinics to acquire necessary equipment and medications. When prompting Blanche to speak on Comstock, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked if its enforcement “provides that every article or thing designed or adapted or intended for producing abortion is declared to be non-mailable.” (7) If federal guidance were in place to ban the shipment of every item capable of “producing abortion,” it would be functionally impossible for clinics to operate (3).

If Comstock were federal law, abortion would become less accessible in all 50 states, not just those that have pre-existing laws on telehealth abortion care. Providers would be forced to navigate a confusing and turbulent legal landscape when it came to classification of ‘abortion-inducing’ items and the types of services they could offer. The Comstock Act is a “zombie law” – and the only way to eliminate its threat of a national abortion ban is for Congress to repeal the Act in its entirety (8). Trump and his anti-abortion allies have kept Comstock under their purview for far too long, and the threat of its enforcement has never been more imminent.

Todd Blanche wants to abuse the power of the Department of Justice to target abortion access, and this could mean the end of reproductive healthcare as we know it. Anti-abortion lobbyists’ obsession with Comstock reflects what we’ve known for decades: they will not stop at blocking telehealth abortion care. Their bogus claims that refute the decades of evidence to support the safety and efficacy of abortion pills have always been just that – complete bogus. What they want is a national abortion ban, and they’re not afraid to deploy a century-old policies to do it. Congress must repeal The Comstock Act. And if they don’t, we must prepare to fight back against any threat to resurrect it. Add your name to our petition and tell the Trump administration to keep their hands off abortion pills.

Sources:

1. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5970583-blanche-pledged-stop-mail-mifepristone/
2. https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/todd–blanche-comstock-act-22346804.php
3. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/todd-blanche-just-opened-the-door-to-a-national-abortion-ban/
4. https://msmagazine.com/2026/05/21/comstock-act-supreme-court-clarence-thomas-mifepristone-fifth-circuit/
5. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/4507255/abortion-pill-pam-bondi-comstock-act/
6. https://www.guttmacher.org/2024/03/medication-abortion-accounted-63-all-us-abortions-2023-increase-53-2020
7. https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/todd-blanche-comstock-act-22346804.php
8. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/how-the-comstock-act-threatens-abortion-rights