Tina Smith expressed dissatisfaction with Trump’s anti-abortion double talk: “I care about what he does”
in one videotape premiered in late October, Minnesota senator Tina Smith sitting next to Anthony Comstock, the US postal inspector and secretary of the New York Vice Suppression Association, who died in 1915 – or rather, a Mr. Comstock impersonator, in full sideburns gray, bushy eyebrows and a black top hat.
Produced by the Abortion Access Front, a reproductive rights nonprofit, the video is titled “The Debate of the Century” and features criticism from Smith Comstock Act—a law drawn up by Comstock in the 1800s, prohibiting the sending of “obscene, lascivious, or lascivious” material, such as pornography, or any articles or objects “for the purpose of preventing conception or abortion”. This so-called “zombie rule,” as Smith explained to her co-star, is still on the books and can be used by the president-elect Donald TrumpThe next U.S. administration aimed to restrict access to abortion nationwide—without a single bill reaching the congressional table.
“Your speaking women quench your insatiable thirst by worshiping at the altar of abortion and contraception; you use the United States postal service as your personal delivery service for lewd goods and all things abortion,” the fake Comstock said in the video to the glare of his opponent. “All things that a Senator Tina Smith could use to taint the morals of the people of our righteous Christian nation.”
“Personally, I would like to welcome Mr. Comstock to the 21st century,” Smith countered, adding, “where women can now vote, own property, hold public office and even wear pants.”
The appearance is an opportunity for Smith to spread awareness about 1800s law and about the bill she has is introduced a few months before that, Act to stop animal husbandryaims to repeal a portion of the law that could be used to ban the mailing of abortion-related items.
Smith, who has been a senator since 2018, has one of the first elected officials raise warnings about Comstock, and has continued to prioritize its threat in the weeks since Trump won the presidential election. Before entering public service, Smith served as executive vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood in Minnesota – making her the highest-ranking former Planned Parenthood executive in U.S. politics and senator. the only congressman to have ever worked for this organization. She told me that this experience taught her “how everyone has a right to access basic health care” and “that we can trust people to make decisions without It takes a bunch of politicians trying to tell them what to do or what to say.” them when to do it or tell them how to do it.”
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Edited for length and clarity, Smith explains when Comstock first came onto her radar, why she focused on what anti-abortion politicians were doing—not speak—and how her office plans to operate in an era where Republicans control the Senate, House and White House.
Vanity Fair: I just wanted to start by asking a little bit about the Stop Composting Act. Where will that bill go in 2025?
Tina Smith: So the Comstock Prevention Act has about 22 co-sponsors, all Democrats. We wanted to introduce that bill to draw attention to this old zombie law that we know, under the Trump administration, has the potential to be a tool that they will use to deny access to services people’s abortion care, even without any action from Congress. . And so it lay there. Of course, it is unlikely that the Comstock Prevention Act will proceed, given the shift in Republican power and control of the House and Senate and the presidency. But I think people using that old zombie law will have a real impact on women’s lives.
