If Donald Trump wins the presidency, he could direct the Justice Department to enforce the Comstock Act’s provisions against mailing drugs for medical abortions.

During Supreme Court oral arguments on March 26 in a case concerning the availability of mifepristone, a drug that induces abortion, two conservative justices — Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — several times referred to the Comstock Act, an obscure statute from 1873 adopted to prohibit the shipment of obscene materials through the mail. It passed after anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock successfully lobbied Congress to enact expansive laws “to prevent the mails from being used to corrupt the public morals.” The act also prohibited the shipment of “any article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion.”

Since its passage more than 150 years ago, the Comstock Act and how courts interpret it have changed. The current version prohibits the mailing of “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” It also forbids any “express company or other common carrier” from providing for “carriage” of such items “in interstate or foreign commerce.” The act provides for a prison sentence of up to five years for the first offense and 10 years for the second offense plus a fine.

For over a century, courts gave narrow leeway to the Comstock Act and it has not been used. The........

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