Commentary: Would a nationwide abortion ban be constitutional?

The Supreme Court has given itself until midnight Friday to make an “emergency” decision on access to mifepristone, a drug used in half of all U.S. abortions. Whatever the outcome, it’s just a preliminary round in the battle over U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling earlier this month to block FDA approval of the drug.

Kacsmaryk’s attack on the abortion pill is chock full of audacious legal assertions. One of its most alarming aspects is its resurrection of the Comstock Act, a 150-year-old law that, if taken to the logical end advanced by anti-abortion forces, would make