Comstock Laws
Ajay Dingley
Law, Values & Public Policy
March 25th, 2002.
Overview
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Anthony Comstock
Why the laws came about
Comstock Act
Role of Interest Groups
Conflicts of various nature
Take away lessons
Anthony Comstock
• Self-appointed anti-vice crusader
• In 1873, anti-obscenity statute
forbade the importing or mailing
of information about abortion or
contraception
• Many state legislatures followed
in NY footsteps
(1844-1915)
Source:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about
/photoalb/COMSTOCK.HTM
• By late 19th century,
contraception became
unmentionable -- even in major
medical textbooks
Comstock’s role
• 1st foray against obscenity in 1868
• A friend of his was “led astray and corrupted
and diseased”
– I.e. friend bought an obscene book, went to a brothel
and contracted a venereal disease
• Bought books from dealers and got police to
arrest them
Comstock Act
• In 1873, Comstock Act passed by Congress, reads as
follows:
That no obscene, lewd, or lascivious book, pamphlet, picture,
paper, print, or other publication of an indecent character, or any
article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of
contraception or the procuring of abortion, nor any article or thing
intended or adapted for any indecent or immoral use or nature,
nor any…book, pamphlet, advertisement or notice of any kind
giving information, directly or indirectly, were, or how, or of
whom, or by what means either of the things before mentioned
may be obtained or made… shall be carried in the mail, and any
person who shall knowingly deposit, or cause to be deposited, for
mailing or delivery, ,any of the herein-before-mentioned articles
or things, or any notice, or paper containing any advertisement
relating to the aforesaid articles or things… shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor.
Aftermath of Comstock Act
• Congress appoint Comstock as U. S. Post Office
Inspector in 1873
• He destroyed 160 tons of literature & brought
3,760 "criminals" to "justice" during these years
Groups supporting Comstock
• Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)
• NY Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV)
• American Medical Association (AMA)
• Physicians
• Church
YMCA’s effort
• Not indifferent to obscenity corrupting the youth
• 1868: YMCA secured a NYS law that restricted the
circulation of obscene material
• 1872: YMCA heard about A. Comstock. They decide to
support his crusade. Morris Jesup founded the
Committee for the Suppression of Vice within YMCA
which secretly sponsored his activities.
• 1874: Committee separates to become NYSSV
– Thus becoming law enforcement body
AMA and physicians’ interests
• AMA criminalized abortion – women were being
“unnaturally selfish and ruthless”
• N.F. Cook wrote about contraception being an unnatural
act – a sin
• Published “Satan in Society” (1878), mentioning
acceptable ways of avoiding pregnancy such as
“doubtful propriety”
• “All other ways means of prevention of offspring are
disgusting, beastly, positively wrongful, as well as
unnatural, and physically injurious.”
Interest of The Church
• Influence of the Church in America was
declining because of Robert G. Ingersoll
- “The Great Agnostic” because of his
unreligious views
• Ingersoll waged relentless war against the
Church
• The Church feeling its power going from it,
grasped at the "Comstock laws."
Comstockery
(cont’d)
• Comstock laws designed to aid and abet both moral and
religious prejudice and persecutions
• This aroused wrath of the free-thinking & liberty- loving
populace
• In 1878, petition presented to Congress, by Ingersoll
signed by 70,000 "freemen," requesting the repeal of
these outrageous laws
• Petition passed and the law was revised, removing the
interference of religious prejudice
Comstock’s perseverance
• The moral interference was left and Anthony Comstock
thus became the official guardian of American morality
• He did not invoke prostitution or marital infidelity to
make his case against contraception
• He equated contraception with corruption of children’s
morals and pollution of the home was predicated on
already existing discourse that linked contraception to
moral impurity
Margaret Sanger
• In 1912, she began a campaign to publicize accurate
sexual information that ultimately led to the first
breaches in the law
• Campaign started with two articles for the New York
Call. "What Every Mother Should Know," ran without
difficulty. The second article, "What Every Girl Should
Know," riled Comstock so much that the issue was
barred from the mails
• The next issue of the newspaper carried the notice,
"What Every Girl Should Know: 'NOTHING! By Order
of the Post Office Department.'"
Breakdown of Comstock laws
• Comstock disliked Sanger's accurate discussion of
venereal disease and her use of words like gonorrhea
• Sanger took different paths toward accomplishing the
same goal
• She sought state and federal laws to protect doctors who
discussed birth control with their patients. Both efforts
moved forward in the 1920's, with Mary Dennett's
program apparently achieving the major success
• Sanger did get legislation protecting the medical
discussion of birth control introduced in Congress and in
some state legislatures
• By mid-1930's, Comstock laws were no longer being
used to bar the dissemination of birth control information
• No proof existed that physicians encountered legal
difficulties if they prescribed birth control devices
• Supreme Court finally entered the battle in the late
1960's by ruling that the dissemination of information
about birth control was a permissible First Amendment
activity with which neither the state nor federal
government could interfere
Closing remarks
• In asking federal, state, and local governments to take
action against sexually explicit material, Americans are
requesting intervention in the most private areas of
family life -- the right to inculcate in their children the
moral values that they wish to pass on
• Legal battles are social events
• Legal system reflects social and political events of our
time
References
• Beisel, Nicola. 1997. Imperiled Innocents: Anthony
Comstock and Family Reproduction in Victorian
America
• “The Comstock Laws”, American Socialist, 4 April
1878, p.108
http://www.binghamton.edu/~womhist/oneida/doc24.
htm last accessed March 25th, 2002
• Sanger, Margaret. 1915. Comstockery in America.
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/comstock.htm
last accessed March 25th, 2002