US anti-abortion activists, including allies of Donald Trump, have a strategy to ban abortion nationwide - one that bypasses Congress and the American people. It’s a plan that hinges on Mr Trump’s re-election in November and the use of a little-known 19th Century law.
At this year’s annual “Pro-Life Summit” on 20 January, guests listened to a keynote speech from Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, one of the country’s most influential anti-abortion groups.
Ms Dannenfelser is widely credited with convincing Donald Trump to appoint three anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court during his presidential term. In June 2022, those appointees helped overturn Roe v Wade, rescinding the nationwide right to abortion.
It was a generational victory for the anti-abortion movement. The runway had opened, activists said at the time, to an abortion-free future.
It is incredible to me that even after all these years the Comstock Act hasn’t been deemed unconstitutional. It is a blatant infringement on free speech, free association rights, not to mention the right to privacy and protections against unreasonable search and seizure.