This essay is very important and everyone needs to understand what's at stake. I'd also like to add something that I just realized. The Comstock Act bans anything intended for producing an abortion to be mailed. Words have power. The legal definition of "mail" means, basically, first-class letters delivered via the US Postal Service, excluding packages, parcels, unless clearly identifiable as pharmaceuticals. This 19th century law was passed before the existence of UPS, FedEx, etc. and very specifically refers to the US Post Office. The law can be avoided entirely by not using the Post Office which would avoid the Federal government. Lawsuits would follow, but it's a very old judicial concept that words should be given their everyday meaning at the time of enactment. There has also been no affirmative action from Congress to amend this law. No, I don't trust the Supreme Court, or specific judges in Texas, but lawsuits take time and money. As Pamela Herd wrote, there's more political fallout now from most of the measures she discussed. On the Federal level, Congressional Republicans know that Trump is a lame duck from day one and political fallout won't effect Trump (or Muskaswamy or RFK, Jr) in 2026. Banning birth control also includes condoms (for birth control but also STDs) so men need to understand this. I live in MO where ballot initiatives have been used successfully for abortion rights, expanded Medicaid, right-to-work laws, medical and recreational marijuana. The cognitive dissonance between supporting these measures and then voting for Republicans is the question of the ages. MO has Blue dots (St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Columbia, a college town). The rest of the state is Red, mostly rural and suffers from the lack of healthcare (in general and maternal healthcare specifically), as well as the effects of school vouchers. Many rural districts have gone to a 4-day school week due to lack of funding; teacher pay is among the lowest in the US; and there aren't many private schools around to use vouchers. Maybe we need to allow Republican voters to save face. We can point out that they've been lied to, not that they're wrong or ill-informed. This way they can put the blame on Republicans where it should be, and they have been lied to.
This essay is very important and everyone needs to understand what's at stake. I'd also like to add something that I just realized. The Comstock Act bans anything intended for producing an abortion to be mailed. Words have power. The legal definition of "mail" means, basically, first-class letters delivered via the US Postal Service, excluding packages, parcels, unless clearly identifiable as pharmaceuticals. This 19th century law was passed before the existence of UPS, FedEx, etc. and very specifically refers to the US Post Office. The law can be avoided entirely by not using the Post Office which would avoid the Federal government. Lawsuits would follow, but it's a very old judicial concept that words should be given their everyday meaning at the time of enactment. There has also been no affirmative action from Congress to amend this law. No, I don't trust the Supreme Court, or specific judges in Texas, but lawsuits take time and money. As Pamela Herd wrote, there's more political fallout now from most of the measures she discussed. On the Federal level, Congressional Republicans know that Trump is a lame duck from day one and political fallout won't effect Trump (or Muskaswamy or RFK, Jr) in 2026. Banning birth control also includes condoms (for birth control but also STDs) so men need to understand this. I live in MO where ballot initiatives have been used successfully for abortion rights, expanded Medicaid, right-to-work laws, medical and recreational marijuana. The cognitive dissonance between supporting these measures and then voting for Republicans is the question of the ages. MO has Blue dots (St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Columbia, a college town). The rest of the state is Red, mostly rural and suffers from the lack of healthcare (in general and maternal healthcare specifically), as well as the effects of school vouchers. Many rural districts have gone to a 4-day school week due to lack of funding; teacher pay is among the lowest in the US; and there aren't many private schools around to use vouchers. Maybe we need to allow Republican voters to save face. We can point out that they've been lied to, not that they're wrong or ill-informed. This way they can put the blame on Republicans where it should be, and they have been lied to.
Thanks! I hadn’t thought about “leave it to the states” as a false reason to support Trump while voting for abortion rights. Gullible.