In 2018, when I was in leadership in the Vermont state Senate, I saw the writing on the wall. I knew that Republicans’ decadeslong effort to overturn Roe v. Wade was nearly complete and that it was time to act to codify access to abortion in our state’s constitution. Colleagues said I was overreacting, that I was being paranoid, that I was hysterical. They said the Supreme Court would never overturn Roe because it was settled law.
It wasn’t satisfying to be right.
And the overturning of Roe v. Wade was just the beginning. Conservatives are preparing for a possible second Trump term with a plan to end all access to abortion and contraception — all spelled out in their playbook, Project 2025. That’s why I’m introducing a bill to take away their biggest weapon.
It’s time we take immediate action to stop Republicans from abusing the Comstock Act to erode our reproductive rights.
The product of over 100 conservative groups, led by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 lays out a wish list for the next administration. Even as the Trump campaign has tried to downplay the project, several of its authors are leading contenders for senior posts in a new Trump White House. As part of the Project 2025 wish list, Republicans will misinterpret an outdated law known as the Comstock Act to ban the mailing of drugs used in medication abortions, instruments and equipment used in surgical abortions and even information about abortion.
The Comstock Act — passed more than 150 years ago — was the result of one man’s crusade against everything he deemed to be obscene, including “any article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procuring an abortion.” Republicans know that voters don’t support a nationwide abortion ban, so reviving this “zombie law” is the easiest path to get their way.
It’s time we take immediate action to stop Republicans from abusing the Comstock Act to erode our reproductive rights. On Friday, I’m introducing the Stop Comstock Act, which would take this outdated and unconstitutional law off the books.
Republicans have been very open about their plan to misuse Comstock and end all access to abortion and contraception. Don’t believe me? Ask Jonathan Mitchell, one of the masterminds behind Project 2025. You may not know him, but you certainly know his work. Mitchell helped author SB 8, the Texas law that effectively banned abortion in the state even before Roe was overturned. He concocted the very disturbing “enforcement mechanism” that allows private citizens to bring lawsuits against those who violate the statute. That law encourages neighbors to spy on each other and calls on Americans to “turn in” those health care providers who rightly put women’s health and safety first.
“We don’t need a federal ban when we have Comstock on the books,” Mitchell told The New York Times regarding ways to implement a nationwide abortion ban. “There’s a smorgasbord of options,” he continued.
Nor will Republicans stop at denying women access to reproductive health care, including abortion.
Project 2025 clearly describes how a Trump administration would misuse this outdated law to impose a nationwide ban on abortion. Comstock prohibits mailing “[e]very article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing ... for producing abortion,” according to Project 2025’s own playbook. “Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, there is now no federal prohibition on the enforcement of this statute. The Department of Justice in the next conservative Administration should therefore announce its intent to enforce federal law against providers and distributors of such pills.”
Nor will Republicans stop at denying women access to reproductive health care, including abortion. In the past few weeks, Senate Republicans have blocked a bill that would have protected access to contraception at the federal level and another that would have ensured federal protection for in vitro fertilization. And Republican lawmakers in 17 states have blocked Democratic moves to protect birth control.
Congressional Republicans and their allies in statehouses across the country are out of step with the American people. Americans want the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies, and they want these freedoms guaranteed.
And what about at the top of the ticket? In May, former President Donald Trump told an interviewer that he was “looking into” restrictions on contraception. In an answer to a follow-up question, Trump said he was basically open to any restrictions that states decide on. Trump later tried to claim that he doesn’t support contraception bans, but during his presidency, his administration expanded the kinds of employers who can remove birth control coverage based on religious or moral objections. (Project 2025 encourages extending those exemptions even further.) And Trump has gloated in numerous speeches and interviews that he appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.
No matter how much Trump and other Republicans pretend their views are moderate, their actions tell us everything we need to know. They will stop at nothing to enact extreme policies that put women’s lives at risk. We must do all we can in this moment to prevent further erosion of our reproductive rights. That starts with stopping the right’s backdoor scheme to achieve what it’s too scared to run on: a total nationwide ban on abortion.