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1878 repeal attempt

Three years after the enactment of the federal law, a petition was circulated by the National Liberal League for its repeal, signed by 40 to 70 thousand people in 1876  Although the press of the country favored repeal, repeal didn't happen partly due to Comstock showing samples of obscenity (pornography) to Congressmen (on the committee that the repeal act was referred to). This pornography had been distributed by the mails to youth, etc. and Comstock's samples were described as a "collection of smutty circulars describing sex depravity".

The National Defense Association in the March of 1879 submitted a letter of affidavits to Samuel Sullivan Cox, a Democratic New York State Representative, for the review of the letter with the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads.(“Letter against the Comstock Act.” US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives, https://history.house.gov/Records-and-Research/Listing/c_019/.) This letter was sent to support the petition it had sent of over 70,000 signatures after Anthony Comstock dismissed the petition, accusing it of having forged names to make up the massive population of supporters. Comstock also accused the petition and the movement of being supported by "the public press throughout the country".#REF33 The National Defense Association was established shortly after the enactment of the Comstock Laws in order to combat the loss of civil liberties due to the laws in which freedom of press is restricted, as well as access to any works of art or literature what would have been deemed "obscene."

Extended works of Comstock along the lines of the Comstock laws include a petition from the Committee for the Suppression of Vice to include obscene written works that were enclosed in a sealed envelope, an item that was not covered in the renditions of the Comstock Laws, as an item to convict for a punishable offence.(“Records of Rights.” Petition for Stricter Obscenity Laws, 1887, http://recordsofrights.org/records/26/petition-for-stricter-obscenity-laws.) Other works that he tried to enclose under the range of the laws that used his namesake include international art pieces that depicted scantily-clad women, textbooks for medical students, and other items that seem to steer away from the original theme of the laws. These misguided efforts left some of his original supporters to doubt his intentions. Comstock's excision of authoritative power as a special agent Postal Inspector included over three thousand and six hundred people prosecuted and the destruction of over a hundred and sixty tons of literature found to be obscene.(“Anthony Comstock.” Kate Chopin - Anthony Comstock, http://people.loyno.edu/~kchopin/new/related/comstock.html)

Original section replaced by the parent federal law of the Comstock Laws

The following passage is the original Section 148 of the 1872 Amendment "An Act to revise, consolidate, and amend the Statutes relating to the Post-office Department," before it was changed by the parent act of the Comstock Laws, Section 211 of the Federal Criminal Code, in 1873.(United States, Congress, “An Act to Revise, Consolidate, and Amend the Statutes Relating to the Post-Office Department.” An Act to Revise, Consolidate, and Amend the Statutes Relating to the Post-Office Department, pp. 302–302.)

Sec. 148. That no obscene book. pamphlet, picture, print, or any other publication of a vulgar or indecent character, or any letter upon the envelope of which, or postal card upon which scurrilous epithets may have been written or printed, or disloyal devices printed or engraved, shall be carried in the mail; and any person who shall knowingly deposit, or cause to be deposited, for mailing or for delivery, any such obscene publication, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall, for every such offence, be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, according to the circumstances and aggravation of the offence.

This section was amended by the second section of Chapter 258 of the third session of the forty-second Congress. The revision aimed to be more specific in its rhetoric, as well as condemning the act more than the prior edition, like including the advertisement of mentioned obscenities as a punishable offence. Another way this was conveyed in the amendment was by also intensifying the punishment of being convicted of this offence by increasing the fine and imprisonment time intervals, while also clarifying that imprisonment include hard labor. The revision included the advertisement of mentioned obscenities as a punishable offence.

Contraceptives in the history of Christianity

Throughout history, Christianity has been openly opposed to contraceptives, with many religious leaders in the past thoroughly demonizing the use of contraceptives, despite the practice being used in the Mediterranean area since before the common era. The first recorded show of the Christian faith being against contraceptives is in the Didache, an early Christian treatise written around 70 AD which condemns the use of contraception along with abortion, infanticide, adultery, and other sins.(“History of the Church and Contraception.” Christianity and Contraception - Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, https://www.hbgdiocese.org/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/history-of-the-church-contraception/.) This theme of Christian culture continued through the centuries until some churches adopt the availability of use of contraceptives, limited at first, which started at the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church in 1930. The only contraception in use for followers of Christianity was allowed use of the calendar or rhythm method, which is the tracking of fertility in a woman's body as to avoid having sexual relations within time frames where the woman would be fertile, but instead when she may be considered the least fertile of her menstrual cycle.