TU.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas argued in a case last week regarding access to the abortion drug mifepristone that the Comstock Act, named after 19th century anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock, was quoted. Even without knowing who Anthony Comstock was or what his law did, he might not have worried all that much. But it was meant to be.
The Comstock Act has been talked about a lot lately, but it’s part of the Republican sex war, which may sound overly dramatic. But there have been such wars, and some of them, against sex education, access to contraception, against Planned Parenthood, and of course against abortion, have long been public, along with wars against women’s rights. . And also about the rights and existence of queer and trans people.
Comstock was reputed to have been driven by religious shame against masturbation to become the most extreme anti-sex activist of his time. He famously spent his early 1870s persuading Congress to make it a crime to advertise, sell, or mail contraceptives, or distribute information about contraception, even verbally, by mailing anything “immoral.” became. He was sent to prison for including stories in feminist newspapers reporting sexual abuse by prominent publishers Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin. Like modern right-wingers, he was a book-burner and boasted that he had driven 15 people to suicide.
“When fascism comes to America, it’s going to be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross” is a useful quote, and one that seems to describe a hugging Donald Trump well. a lot He carried an American flag on stage and last week was peddling Christian nationalist Bibles. But if fascism really comes to America, it won’t just come as a single entity. It will creep in with the gradual erosion of local, state, and federal laws and rights promoted by many actors at various levels. In fact, it has been looming over us all along. It is currently a particularly serious anti-sex movement.
Too many people thought Roe v. Wade wouldn’t actually be overturned, just like they thought Trump wouldn’t actually get elected. The assumption that norms will persist, whether it be climate, domestic policy, society, or international order, is a dangerous insensitivity today. The backlash against Roe’s overturn in June 2022 has been spectacular, with Democratic election wins and blue state bills strengthening reproductive rights, but that doesn’t mean women in red states are feeling the horror of this decision. You are not immune from the consequences.
At this point, we all know that these include being prosecuted for suspected miscarriages, not to mention actual abortions, and lack of timely care by health care providers. Healthcare providers may wait until patients who miscarry become critically ill from infection or loss for fear of prosecution themselves. Collect blood before providing care.As legal journalist Mark Joseph Stern tweeted March 27, “The ultimate goal of the anti-abortion movement is to enable doctors to refuse treatment, including critical care, to patients they deem sinful and morally impure.” She is a woman and is to die for her sins.
As if that wasn’t enough, in May 2023, the Heritage Foundation tweeted on social media, “Conservatives must take the lead in restoring sex to its intended purpose and ending recreational sex and the pointless use of contraceptives.” It will not happen,” he declared. This is a fanatical statement. Most of the sex that most humans engage in is not for reproductive purposes. recreational use It devalues joy, deep connection, and self-transcendence.
Nevertheless, the far-right, to which the Heritage Foundation belongs, continues to push toward this goal by seeking to take away contraception and abortion in order to make sex punitively dangerous for those who may become pregnant. I’m here. It is clear that taking away women’s reproductive freedom deprives them of other social, economic and educational freedoms and re-establishes a society of gender inequality. The right has also made noise about ending no-fault divorce and marriage equality, and introduced hundreds of anti-trans bills this year and last.
of project 2025 If President Trump wins this November, as part of his right-wing coup agenda, USAid’s Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment will be required to “distribute USAid’s website, agency publications and policies, and all agency contracts and grants.” All language contained therein should be deleted.” Terms including “gender and gender equality” should be removed, as well as references to “abortion,” “reproductive health,” and “sexual and reproductive rights.” The threat is clear. I hope people realize that.
It is no coincidence that the authoritarian right is obsessed with both national borders and women’s bodies. They want to increase patrols in both and effectively shut down both. It is an obsession with purity and control that must be achieved through punitive and sometimes murderous violent means. And it’s a roadmap back to the horrific inequalities that women were already campaigning against in the days of Anthony Comstock.
