Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said Friday they want to repeal an obscure 150-year-old federal law so it can't be used by a future president to restrict access to medication abortions. Smith noted that U.S.
Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas raised the Comstock Act during oral arguments over a
Texas case regarding mifespristone, a drug used for medication abortions. The act, dating to 1873, prohibits the mailing of any "lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article manner or thing" and that includes any material that can be used for an abortion, Smith said at a news conference in Ellison's State Capitol office. The act has not been used for more than 100 years, but now
Republicans, including former President
Donald Trump, are looking at it as a means to restrict access to
abortion through an executive action, Smith said. She wrote an opinion piece about her position published earlier this week . Ellison, also a Democrat, noted that abortion is protected by law in Minnesota, but that could end if the Comstock Act is used by Trump if he wins a second term. "Letting it continue to sit on the books invites mischief," Ellison said. Smith says she's planning to introduce legislation to repeal the Comstock Act, pending the Supreme Court's ruling. But she conceded they don't have the votes in the Republican-controlled U.S. House. "Obviously we don't have those votes right now and that's why
elections matter and that's why it's important to be talking about this now and thinking about this now," Smith said. In response to the Supreme Court hearing on access to the drug, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Executive Director Cathy Blaeser said President
Joe Biden had rolled back safety protocols regarding mifepristone. "And the risks only increase when the drug is sent through the mail without a doctor's visit," she wrote in a statement advocating for the court to act. "We hope that the Court will recognize these dangers and act in the best interest of
Women and their unborn children."