Committee Gives Approval to Bill Abolishing Archaic Sex Laws
Associated Press, March 5, 2002
BOSTON—A bill abolishing a series of Colonial-era
sex laws was given a favorable recommendation by a Statehouse panel Tuesday.
The bill would strike out an anti-sodomy law, a law establishing a
three-year prison sentence for adultery and a law barring the manufacture and
advertisement of contraceptives.
The move comes just weeks after the Supreme Judicial Court refused to rule
unconstitutional two anti-sodomy laws, but did limit how the laws could be
enforced.
The bill would repeal one of the two laws barring "abominable and
detestable crime against nature," interpreted as anal intercourse, but
would leave on the books a second law barring "unnatural and lascivious
act(s)," interpreted as oral sex.
The bill was given a favorable recommendation by the Criminal Justice
Committee. It now heads to the full Senate.
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