Comstock Laws

1
Comstock Laws

• Ajay Dingley
• Law, Values Public Policy
• March 25th, 2002.

2
Overview

• Anthony Comstock
• Why the laws came about
• Comstock Act
• Role of Interest Groups
• Conflicts of various nature
• Take away lessons

3
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
  
• By late 19th century, contraception became
  unmentionable -- even in major medical textbooks

(1844-1915)
Source http//www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pho
toalb/COMSTOCK.HTM
4
Comstocks 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

5
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 anybook, 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.

6
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
  

7
Groups supporting Comstock

• Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA)
• NY Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV)
• American Medical Association (AMA)
• Physicians
• Church

8
YMCAs 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

9
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.

10
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."

11
Comstockery (contd)

• 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

12
Comstocks 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
  childrens morals and pollution of the home was
  predicated on already existing discourse that
  linked contraception to moral impurity

13
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.'"

14
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

15

• 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

16
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

17
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/one
  ida/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