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Home » Legal » High School Civil Liberties Project » Right to Contraception
Teacher ACLU Fact Sheet RIGHT TO CONTRACEPTION Landmark Case - Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) The Constitutional Question What constitutional protection is provided for the use of contraception? Amendments Implicated 14th – “No State shall…deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law…” 4th – “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against the unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” Backround Estelle Griswold was Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut. C. Lee Buxton was a licensed physician and a professor at the Yale Medical School who served as Medical Director for the League at its Center in New Haven - a health center open and operating from November 1 until November 10, 1961, when Buxton and Griswold were arrested. The Planed Parenthood center gave information, instruction, and medical advice to married couples about preventing conception. They examined the wives and prescribed the best contraceptive device or material for them. Fees were usually charged, although some couples were provided complementary medical care. The Decision The Court ruled that the "statute forbidding use of contraceptives violates the right of marital privacy which is within the penumbra of specific guarantees of the Bill of Rights." Justice William O. Douglas, writing for the majority, held that, the rights people have are more than what can be read in the explicit language of the Constitutional text. Citing a number of earlier cases, he emphasized how the Court had established a justified precedent for protecting the marital and family relationships from government interference without strong justification. This decision gave constitutional protection to the rapidly rising expectation of privacy, and it laid the foundation for a constitutional attack on existing criminal abortion laws. Related Cases Eisenstadt v. Baird – 1972 In its decision, the Supreme Court held that the law in Massachusetts permitting married couples to obtain contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, while prohibiting unmarried individuals the same right, violated equal protection under the law. The case recognized that unmarried couples have a constitutionally protected right of privacy to choose contraception. Carey v. Population Services International – 1977 The Supreme Court ruled that New York’s interest in discouraging teen sex could not be justified by denying minors and their parents choices that would reduce the chance of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. The decision extended to minors the constitutionally protected right of privacy by an individual to make choices regarding contraception. Web Links |
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