An obscure 1800s law is shaping up to be the center of the next abortion battle – legal scholars explain what's behind the Victorian-era Comstock Act

Anti-abortion activists gather outside the Supreme Court building on April 15, 2023. Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Anti-abortion groups are looking for new ways to wage their battle against abortion rights, eyeing the potential implications of a 150-year-old law, the Comstock Act, that could effectively lead to a nationwide abortion ban.

Congress passed the Comstock Act in 1873, making it a crime to mail or ship any “lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article” and anything that “is advertised or described in a manner … for producing abortion.”