Finally, some modest good news for abortion rights in America | Moira Donegan

The Biden administration made two moves to protect medication abortion

There have been so few victories for the pro-choice movement over the past year that women's rights advocates can be forgiven for taking pleasure in two moves that the Biden administration made this week.

The first, from the Department of Justice (DoJ), was a statement meant to push back against a legal absurdity that is gaining popularity on the anti-choice right: the idea that the 1873 Comstock Act, an archaic anti-obscenity law, prohibits the sending of abortion medication through the mail. The second was a move by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions, to be distributed at retail pharmacies, rather than exclusively from doctors.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist