The Justice Department has announced that despite a Supreme Court judgment that reversed a landmark abortion rights decision, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) can continue to deliver prescription abortion medication.
In an opinion issued by the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel, the agency concluded that mailing abortion-related drugs used to terminate pregnancies did not violate federal law because the medications can also be used for other reasons. Christopher Schroeder, who leads the Office of Legal Counsel, argued that there were multiple ways individuals could “use these drugs” without violating state laws. He added the “mere mailing of such drugs to a particular jurisdiction is an insufficient basis for concluding that the sender intends to use them unlawfully.”
In a statement, USPS said the Office of Legal Counsels opinion “confirms that the Comstock Act does not require the Postal Service to change our current practice, which has been to consider packages containing mifepristone and misoprostol (abortion-related medications) to be mailable under federal law in the same manner as other prescription drugs.”
This comes as anti-abortion groups have vowed to contest the decision, promising a battle in court. In addition, attorney generals in various republican controlled states are anticipated to file federal lawsuits within the coming days contesting the postal services stance.