Person

Lauren MacIvor Thompson

Bylines

The History and Legacy of Anthony Comstock and the Comstock Laws

As the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposes to revive the Comstock Act, this seven-part forum explores the Act’s influence on American life.

by Lauren MacIvor Thompson, Allison K. Lange, Kimberly A. Hamlin, Nicholas L. Syrett, Cathleen D. Cahill, Magdalene Zier, Andrew Wender Cohen via SHGAPE Blog on September 24, 2024
partner

The Original Comstock Act Doesn’t Support the New Antiabortion Decision

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk rationalized his medication abortion opinion through a distorted reading of the long-dormant 1873 law.

by Lauren MacIvor Thompson via Made By History on April 12, 2023
Mother’s Friend: Birth Control in Nineteenth-Century America

How antebellum women prevented themselves from getting pregnant during an era when their identity was founded on being a mother.

by Lauren MacIvor Thompson via National Museum of Civil War Medicine on February 5, 2017

Viewing 1–3 of 3

Abortion advertisement in the National Police Gazette, 1847.

“Female Monthly Pills” and the Coded Language of Abortion Before Roe

Our future might look much like our past, with pills as a major part of abortion access—and an obsessive target for abortion opponents.

by Melissa Gira Grant via The New Republic on January 22, 2020

Demonstrators with signs supporting medication abortion.

Conservatives Are Turning to a 150-Year-Old Obscenity Law to Outlaw Abortion

With the Comstock Act of 1873 coming back to life, reproductive care, LGBTQ protections, and a host of other civil rights are now at risk.

by Melissa Gira Grant via The New Republic on April 12, 2023

What Planned Parenthood Looked Like in The 1940s

Following WWII, the birth control organization published illustrated pamphlets with authoritative guidance on family planning.

by Claire Voon via Hyperallergic on October 5, 2017

brought to you by

© Bunk History