In a statement to NOTUS, the USPS left the door open for guidance around the Comstock Act to change, but it plans to “continue to act consistent” with a DOJ memo until then.
The United States Postal Service says that it will continue to mail abortion pills “so long as” the Justice Department’s interpretation of the Comstock Act remains the same, suggesting the agency is leaving the door open for the guidance to change under the Trump administration.
The Comstock Act is a series of federal laws enacted in 1873 that prohibit the shipment of “every article or thing designed, adapted or intended for producing abortion.” The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) concluded in December 2022 that mailing abortion pills is illegal only when “the sender intends them to be used unlawfully,” after the Postal Service requested guidance from the agency shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned.