March 3, 1873: Comstock Act Enacted

Seal of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, founded in 1873. Source: Public domain

Passed by Congress on March 3, 1873, the Comstock Act made it a federal crime to disseminate birth control across state lines or through the mail. This anti-obscenity law was written by one Anthony Comstock, a Christian and Civil War veteran who lived in New York, where he served as secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

As described in the PBS article Anthony Comstock’s “Chastity” Laws,

In the late 1860s, Comstock began supplying the police with information for raids on sex trade merchants and came to prominence with his anti-obscenity crusade. Also offended by explicit advertisements for birth control devices, he soon identified the contraceptive industry as one of his targets. Comstock was certain that the availability of contraceptives alone promoted lust and lewdness.

“Anthony Comstock Shuddering at the Sight of an Unshelled Peanut,” by Godfrey, Rogue magazine, July 1915. Source: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library / Science History Institute Museum & Library

Soon after the Comstock Act became law, nearly half the the states in the country enacted similar anti-obscenity laws, and in Connecticut the use of birth control itself became illegal.

These laws remained for nearly 50 years, until birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger was arrested in 1916 for opening the country’s first birth control clinic. The Comstock Act was amended in 1936 when it became legal to distribute birth control across state lines. It wasn’t until the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 — 100 years after the Comstock Act was first passed — that a woman’s right to abortion was constitutionally protected (and this, of course, was overturned in the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision).

Additional Resources

Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock by Amy Werbel

The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age by Amy Sohn

The podcast Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD, specifically episode 5 (The Moral Crusade), discusses Anthony Comstock, his “chastity” laws, and the impact they have had.

The 150-Year-Old Comstock Act Could Transform the Abortion Debate by Ellen Wexler (Smithsonian Magazine)

Anti-Abortion Extremists Want to Use the 150-Year-Old Comstock Act to Ban Abortion Nationwide by Andrew Beck (ACLU)