How Pam Bondi Could Curtail Abortion And Contraception Access
Pam Bondi was sworn in on February 5 as the 87th U.S. attorney general.
Bondi, who served as Florida’s first female attorney general from 2011 to 2019, is now responsible for advising President Donald Trump on legal matters and oversees the Department of Justice.
As Florida attorney general, Bondi supported and argued for restrictions and bans on abortion and contraception. She now has the power to enforce federal laws, including the Comstock Act.
The Comstock Act has been part of the U.S. Code since 1873. The so-called anti-vice law criminalizes the distribution through the U.S. mail of “obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance; and— Every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use.” The punishment for violating the law is a fine, imprisonment for up to five years, or both.
While the scope of the law has been restricted over the years, and it has not been regularly enforced since the 1930s, anti-abortion activists and politicians see it as a tool for blocking the distribution of abortion medications. Bondi has not directly discussed her position on enforcing the Comstock Act, but her record of opposing abortion in Florida indicates the direction she is likely to go.
Bondi supported 24-hour mandatory waiting periods for patients seeking abortions. She joined amicus briefs against access to contraception, arguing the mandate that employers provide insurance coverage for it under the Affordable Care Act was a violation of religious freedom. She also joined with other state attorneys general in filing a brief defending a law in Alabama prohibiting abortion clinics from operating near schools and criminalizing abortion providers over the disposal of fetal tissue. She signed on to an amicus brief in support of Texas Senate Bill 8, which banned abortion after 14-16 weeks of pregnancy.
More recently, when Sen. Cory Booker asked Bondi during her January 14 confirmation hearing whether she would commit to continuing the U.S. Department of Justice’s defense of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2000 of the abortion medication mifepristone as safe and effective, she said: “I will look at that policy. I am personally pro-life. I have always been pro-life,” adding, “I will not let my personal beliefs affect how I carry out the law.”
However, Bondi recently told Louisiana 18th Judicial District Attorney Tony Clayton, after he issued an indictment against a New York abortion provider on charges of mailing abortion pills to patients in the state, “I would love to work with you,” a possible indication that she might be willing to enforce Comstock or stop shield laws, legislation that protects medical providers from investigation, subpoenas, warrants, and demands for extradition from another state.
On January 22, 13 anti-abortion leaders sent a letter to acting Attorney General James McHenry asking the Department of Justice to begin enforcing Comstock, referring to it as a “trafficking” law.
“Enforcement of the federal anti-abortion trafficking law is crucial to ensuring that abortion pills are not distributed in violation of federal and state laws,” reads the letter, posted online by the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life. “Blatant violations of the federal Act expose women to dangerous and unsafe drugs and undermine the integrity of the medical profession. We ask that the DOJ prioritize investigations and enforcement against those who are involved in the illegal distribution of abortion pills.”
Reprinted with permission from Wisconsin Independent.
