J.D. Vance Called on the DOJ to Ban Abortion Nationwide Using the Comstock Act. He and Trump Will Do Exactly That.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 18 July 2024 Biden Harris 2024
Much has been picked apart about J.D. Vance’s extreme, unpopular record on abortion in the last 48 hours. First, Vance’s comments doubling down on abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or incest were exposed. Then, a CNN report revealed that Vance declared his unwavering support for a national abortion ban. It’s no surprise that Vance went so far as to delete the page on his website dedicated to his anti-abortion views (don’t worry, we saved it for you).
Vance’s attempts to paper over his record won’t stop voters from learning the truth about his and Trump’s Project 2025 agenda.
A new report in the Washington Post laid out that Vance called on the Department of Justice to use the Comstock Act to ban abortion nationwide without Congress. It’s exactly the path Trump’s Project 2025 allies say that Trump will take to ban abortion nationwide if he wins a second term – now, it’s clear that his vice presidential nominee has already called for it.
In an 5-page letter to President Biden’s DOJ, Vance and his MAGA Republican allies slammed the Biden-Harris administration for refusing to use the 150-year old, dormant Comstock Act to wipe out access to medication abortion nationwide. Vance and his colleagues called on the Biden administration to rescind its policy immediately and begin enforcing Comstock, including prosecuting and jailing those who mail medication abortion.
In their letter, Vance and his co-authors go out of their way to make it clear that they believe the next administration has the power to ban abortion nationwide using the Comstock Act, and that the Biden-Harris administration’s stance “has no official or binding legal effect on Federal courts or future administrations.”
Read key excerpts of Vance and his colleagues’ letter to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland below and the full letter here:
“The actual text of the [Comstock Act] cannot and should not be ignored. Despite numerous amendments to the statute, Congress has never repealed these criminal statutes that prohibit the mailing of dangerous chemical abortion drugs nor modified them in a way that restricted them based on the sender’s intent or the recipient’s plans. As such, these longstanding Federal mail-order abortion laws continue to be ‘the supreme law of the land.’ Despite the great lengths OLC went to in order to try to turn these laws into a dead letter, it is nevertheless your Constitutional duty to enforce these Federal criminal laws contained in sections 1461 and 1462 of title 18 of the U.S. Code according to their plain text as enacted by Congress. That necessarily includes prosecuting those in the abortion industry who are responsible for the dangerous and, sadly, pervasive mailing and interstate or international carriage of abortion drugs. While the use of chemical abortion drugs may be legal in some States, and Federal law does not currently explicitly prohibit the use of such drugs, Federal law does prohibit the mailing or shipping of such items. Despite attempts to downplay this action, the ‘mere mailing’ of these items is expressly what the law has prohibited for nearly 150 years.
“Beyond the legal flaws in the memo, it is of great concern that OLC makes no effort to adequately or appropriately emphasize that this opinion has no official or binding legal effect on Federal courts or future administrations, and that these laws, which include criminal penalties, are subject to a 5-year statute of limitations. An OLC memo cannot rewrite the law, and the plain words of the law are clear. OLC has chosen to promote abortion rather than the law, and is dangerously misleading those who would rely on this memo into committing what the Federal law clearly proscribes as criminal activity. It is your Constitutional and moral responsibility to rescind the memo.
“As you are aware, violations of the Federal mail-order abortion laws constitute predicate offenses under both the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and Federal criminal money laundering statutes. RICO provides for enhanced criminal penalties and civil causes of action against anyone who, in connection with an enterprise, engages in a pattern of violating the Federal mail-order abortion laws.
[…]
“We demand that you act swiftly and in accordance with the law, shut down all mail-order abortion operations, and hold abortionists, pharmacists, international traffickers, and online purveyors, who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws, accountable. We also demand that, in light of these laws, you cease efforts to prevent States from regulating or prohibiting abortion drugs. Instead, we expect that you put the law and your obligation to enforce it above the abortion industry’s dangerous and deadly political agenda.”
Biden-Harris 2024 Spokesperson Sarafina Chitika released the following statement:
“Trump’s choice of a running mate is even further proof that he will ban abortion nationwide the minute he gets the chance if he wins this November – and he and his allies don’t think they need Congress to get it done. Vance, like Trump, has made it clear where he stands, saying he wants to see abortion made illegal nationwide and standing behind bans with no exceptions for rape or incest.
“In Trump’s eyes, Vance’s deep commitment to carrying out their Project 2025 agenda is what qualifies him for the ticket. The only way to protect our rights and freedoms this November is to stop Trump, Vance, and their Project 2025 agenda at the ballot box by sending Joe Biden back to the White House.”
Read more in the Washington Post here and below:
Washington Post: Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills
By Dan Diamond and Meryl Kornfield
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), newly tapped as the GOP vice-presidential nominee, last year joined an effort to enforce the Comstock Act, the 151-year-old federal law that has become a lightning rod in the nation’s abortion debate.
The Comstock Act, which bans the mailing of abortion-related materials, has not been invoked for that purpose in about a century. The Biden administration maintains that its provisions are outdated today. But some Republicans have attempted to resurrect the law to limit or effectively ban abortion nationwide, a position that Vance and other lawmakers conveyed to Attorney General Merrick Garland in a January 2023 letter.
“We demand that you act swiftly and in accordance with the law, shut down all mail-order abortion operations,” Vance and about 40 fellow Republican lawmakers wrote. The Republicans called on the Justice Department to potentially prosecute physicians, pharmacists and others “who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws,” citing additional federal laws that apply to criminal conspiracy and money laundering.
Vance did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. The Ohio senator, whose staunch antiabortion stance has won him plaudits from conservatives and drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, has recently signaled he may be relaxing his position.
[...]
GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, who announced Vance as his running mate Monday, has declined to comment on the Comstock Act.
Democrats said they remain worried about Vance’s antiabortion efforts, particularly given that he could shape the next White House’s policies. Most abortions are performed with medication sent through the mail — a delivery system that could be slowed or halted if the Justice Department changes its position on the Comstock Act.
“The threat that a future Trump-Vance administration will misuse Comstock to ban abortion nationwide is now a five-alarm fire,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who is leading an effort to repeal the Comstock Act’s abortion provisions in Congress.
The White House has also drawn a contrast between Biden’s stance on Comstock and his GOP rivals.
“While Republican elected officials would like to resuscitate a law from 1873 to shut down access to mifepristone — which the FDA first approved as safe and effective more than 20 years ago — the Biden-Harris Administration has made clear that the Comstock Act is not a barrier to the shipment or transport of medication abortion,” Jennifer Klein, director of the White House’s Gender Policy Council, said in a statement.
Antiabortion advocates first moved to revive the Comstock Act after Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago — arguing that without the constitutional right to abortion, the long-dormant act now makes it illegal for anyone to mail abortion pills, even in states where abortion remains legal. The law has been referenced by “Project 2025,” the conservative-backed alliance that has created a policy road map for a future Republican president. The Project 2025 document was released after the letter from Vance and other GOP senators was sent. According to Project 2025’s blueprint, the Justice Department should “enforce federal law” against providers and distributors of abortion pills.
Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that helped organize Project 2025, praised Vance’s positions on abortion and said the letter aligns with their proposals.
[…]
Trump has spent months dodging questions about Comstock, part of his effort to navigate abortion politics that have proved difficult for Republicans. The party has been defeated in every statewide referendum on abortion issues since the fall of Roe, and Trump has said Republicans should back away from a national abortion ban and leave the issue to the states.
Asked about the Comstock Act in an April interview by Time magazine, Trump said it was a “very important issue” and promised to issue a “big statement” within the next two weeks.
Trump has yet to issue that statement on Comstock.
[...]
As president between 2017 and 2021, Trump nominated three Supreme Court justices who ruled to overturn Roe, reinstated restrictions on funding of abortion overseas and took other steps that led activists to hail him as the most antiabortion president in history.
Vance, during his run for the Ohio Senate seat, said he was “totally fine” with a “minimum national standard” on abortion restrictions but did not specify at what point abortions should be banned. Asked in 2021 whether abortion laws should include exceptions for rape and incest, he said that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
[...]
“J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are trying to ‘soften’ their position on abortion. Don’t believe it,” said Smith, the Minnesota Democrat. “When they tell us they want to ban abortion, they mean it.”
Resources:
Washington Post: Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion medication
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