Anti-abortion activists across the United States are convinced that a 19th-century anti-vice law could hold the key to banning abortion nationwide. Their strategy could be put to the test this week.
On Wednesday, the New Mexico supreme court will hear arguments in a case over local ordinances passed in the towns of Hobbs and Clovis, in the east of the state, as well as the nearby Lea and Roosevelt counties. All four localities have passed similar ordinances claiming that the Comstock Act, an 1873 law meant to target vice, bans the mailing of abortion-related materials. The ordinances also effectively ban abortion in the four areas overall, prompting New Mexico’s attorney general to ask the supreme court to strike them down.
