ComstockCon brought together organizers, historians, attorneys, journalists, artists, writers, and others to trace the connections between the political context in which the Comstock Act was passed and how it constrains our present.
Held at Harvard Law (located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett peoples) on May 14th, ComstockCon was a convening inspired by the fallout from the Dobbs decision and broader attacks on bodily autonomy.
Originally conceived by co-organizers Kendra Albert and Melissa Gira Grant in 2022 as a way to forecast what enforcement of the Comstock Act might look like without Roe, in the ensuing months, a coalition of anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ rights, and Christian right groups have been openly calling for the next conservative president to enforce the Comstock Act as a nationwide abortion ban. We must imagine a post-Comstock future.
We were able to speak with other sex worker organizers, abortionists, reproductive justice activists and providers, mutual aid fundraisers, trans and GNC healthcare and tech experts, harm reductionists, and the media and legal people who learn from all of us, frequently. It was an intense day of historical framing, strategy and reflection. Here’s to a future where Comstock’s ghost no longer haunts us.
