U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., stated she isn’t shopping for the Republican presidential ticket’s place on abortion.
NBC “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker requested Warren on Aug. 25 what she considered former President Donald Trump’s operating mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, saying in an earlier interview that Trump wouldn’t signal a federal abortion ban.
Warren stated, “American ladies aren’t silly,” and that the candidates have an anti-abortion monitor report.
“JD Vance truly despatched a letter final 12 months to the Division of Justice saying, ‘implement the Comstock Act,’” Warren stated. “And bear in mind, he did that, after which Donald Trump picked him to be his vp.”
The Comstock Act is an 1873 antivice legislation that bans the mailing of “obscene” supplies utilized in abortions. Anti-abortion advocates have tried to resurrect the legislation to ban sending supplies reminiscent of abortion-inducing remedy and surgical gear.
In January 2023, Vance joined about 40 congressional Republicans in sending a letter urging the U.S. Justice Division to implement the Comstock Act to crack down on mailing abortion drugs, that are used within the majority of U.S. abortions.
The letter Vance signed was in response to the discharge of a Justice Division memo saying U.S. legislation doesn’t prohibit the mailing of abortion remedy so long as the sender doesn’t intend for the remedy for use illegally.
“As a result of there are manifold methods by which recipients in each state might lawfully use such medicine, together with to provide an abortion, the mere mailing of such medicine to a selected jurisdiction is an inadequate foundation for concluding that the sender intends them for use unlawfully,” Christopher Schroeder, assistant legal professional basic for the Workplace of Authorized Counsel, wrote within the Dec. 23, 2022, memo.
The Justice Division was finding out the query after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 and the U.S. Postal Service requested the division to handle whether or not the Comstock Act criminalizes the mailing of mifepristone, the primary capsule in a two-drug routine for a drugs abortion.
However Vance and different Republicans stated the Justice Division’s interpretation departed from the legislation’s plain-text which means.
“We demand that you just act swiftly and in accordance with the legislation, shut down all mail-order abortion operations,” Vance and fellow Republican lawmakers wrote to Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland. Signatories included present Home Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana, Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The Republicans cited different federal felony conspiracy and cash laundering legal guidelines and requested the division to rescind or redraft the memo. They stated division officers ought to maintain accountable physicians, pharmacists and others “who break the Federal mail-order abortion legal guidelines” and demanded it stop its efforts to “forestall States from regulating or prohibiting abortion medicine.”
On July 7, Vance advised NBC he supported entry to abortion remedy, citing a June Supreme Courtroom ruling that left mifepristone in the marketplace. However the courtroom rejected a authorized problem of the capsule’s FDA approval on procedural grounds, not on the case’s deserves. Thus, the courtroom may face the query once more.
Since turning into the Republican vice presidential nominee, Vance hasn’t weighed in particularly on the Comstock Act.
PolitiFact contacted the Trump marketing campaign however didn’t hear again.
Our ruling
Warren stated Vance despatched a letter to the Justice Division asking it to implement the Comstock Act.
Vance in 2023 signed onto a letter to the division with about 40 different Republicans. The letter challenged the division’s interpretation of the legislation and demanded that it shut down all mailing of abortion drugs.
Since turning into the Republican vice presidential candidate, Vance has stated he helps a Supreme Courtroom resolution that left abortion remedy in the marketplace.
Warren’s assertion is correct. We price it True.
