Not a pro-life position’

‘It’s not a pro-life position’: Anger after Trump says no to Comstock

Many prominent conservatives and anti-abortion activists were outraged by the remark, calling it “nonsensical” and “cowardly.”

By Alice Miranda Ollstein

Former President Donald Trump gave his clearest answer to date on the federal regulation of abortion pills, and it’s not what conservatives wanted to hear.

After months of avoiding specifics, Trump told CBS News on Monday that he would not use the 150-year-old Comstock Act to ban mail delivery of the drugs if elected in November, adding: “The federal government should have nothing to do with this issue.”

Many prominent conservatives and anti-abortion activists were outraged by the remark, calling it “nonsensical” and “cowardly,” and warning that it could dampen turnout and enthusiasm on the right heading into a close election.

“It is not a pro-life position, it’s not an acceptable position, and it does not provide the contrast on this issue to the degree that we have had in the past between him and Kamala Harris,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “What President Trump is doing is suppressing his own support.”

Though anti-abortion stalwarts credit Trump for appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe, this is far from their first clash over policy and messaging. Trump’s refusal to endorse a national abortion ban and push to soften parts of the GOP platform ahead of the Republican convention sparked outrage from corners of the right, including from his former vice president, Mike Pence.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Though abortion opponents are pouring resources into a myriad of legislative, legal and other strategies to cut off access to abortion pills, they have seized in particular on Comstock as a means of curtailing their use without having to go through Congress.

The law, passed in the 1870s and named for an official who campaigned against everything from masturbation to women’s suffrage, bans mail delivery of any “lewd or lascivious material,” including any “instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing” that could be used for an abortion.

Conservatives’ Project 2025 includes the idea of using this long-dormant anti-vice law to ban the mailing of the pills used in two-thirds of all abortions. And in 2023, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, joined dozens of members of Congress on a letter urging the Justice Department to use Comstock to prosecute “the reckless distribution of abortion drugs by mail.”

Perkins and other anti-abortion activists see Trump’s new rejection of Comstock as hypocritical given his repeated calls for leaving abortion laws up to states. They argue that declining to enforce the 19th-century law is a de facto endorsement of doctors and advocacy groups that mail pills into states where they are banned. Telehealth across state lines is a major reason why the number of abortions has increased nationally since the fall of Roe, accounting for nearly 20 percent of all abortions in the first quarter of 2024, according to a report from the Society of Family Planning.

“President Trump keeps saying that he wants to be out of the federal business of abortion,” said Kristi Hamrick, the chief policy strategist with Students for Life of America. “So, number one, stop funding it. And, two, end the federal prejudice in favor of this distribution.”

Hamrick added that Trump’s Comstock stance threatens to undermine his and the GOP’s claim to be the party of law and order.

“We can’t ignore the rule of law and pick and choose the laws that we want to enforce,” she said. “Isn’t everybody’s criticism of the Department of Justice their selective enforcement? So this would be the selective un-enforcement of a law that says these are dangerous drugs and should not be mailed. It’s very problematic for a party that respects the law.”

Though Democrats in Congress have introduced bills to repeal it, Comstock remains on the books. Its scope has been narrowed by lawmakers and judges over the decades — for example, it no longer can be used to stop mail delivery of contraception — and the Biden administration issued a legal memo in 2022 arguing that it does not bar mail delivery of abortion medication unless the sender intends for it to be used illegally.

This week’s interview is just the latest way Trump has antagonized the anti-abortion groups that first helped him win the White House in 2016.

Since he left office in 2020, he has drawn their ire for rejecting calls for federal restrictions on abortion, blaming anti-abortion activists for electoral losses in 2022 and 2023, and leading an effort to strip some anti-abortion planks out of the GOP party platform.

Conservatives are also frustrated by other parts of Trump’s latest interview, particularly his characterization of a recent Supreme Court ruling on abortion pills. While the high court in June declined to roll back access to the pills, it ruled only on standing and did not address the merits of the case, instead punting the issue back down to lower courts for further consideration.

Trump, referencing the decision, said abortion pills are “going to be available,” adding: “The Supreme Court has said: ‘Keep it going the way it is.’”

“Unfortunately, it seems like Trump doesn’t care about the pro-life base anymore,” said Lila Rose, the founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action. “He came out recently and said that he supported access to these deadly abortion drugs, and that is horrific.”

Most abortion opponents are pessimistic about changing Trump’s mind on the issue — with Perkins noting the former president has “in almost every case, did what he said he was going to do” on abortion — but some see room to keep up the pressure. Students for Life has sent Trump open letters and are having “a lot of backdoor conversations” with his team. Rose is lobbying Trump and other candidates to “stand for life,” predicting they will lose in November if they fail to do so.

“When Trump is publicly compromising, it’s deeply discouraging to pro-life and pro-family voters, and I think that he’s putting his own election in jeopardy,” she said. “Quite frankly, this is a losing strategy.”