Hopefully Anthony Comstock (March 7, 1844 – September 21, 1915) is imprisoned in the hell he believed in.
Comstock was an American anti-vice activist, United States Postal Inspector, and secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV), who was dedicated to upholding Christian morality.
He opposed abortion and contraception.
The terms comstockery and comstockism refer to his extensive censorship campaign of materials that he considered obscene, including birth control advertised or sent by mail.
He used his positions in the U.S. Postal Service and the NYSSV (in association with the New York police) to make numerous arrests.
“Key to these plans is the Comstock Act, the 19th-century anti-vice law named for the crusading bluenose Anthony Comstock, who persecuted Margaret Sanger, arrested thousands, and boasted of driving 15 of his targets to suicide.”
—Michelle Goldberg, The Mercury News, 11 Apr. 2024
