It took single women a little longer to gain wide access to the pill and other forms of contraception: Linda Gordon, 80, a historian at New York University, recalls the stigma surrounding single women and contraception at the time. The Court extended Griswold`s position to individuals in Eisenstadt v. Baird of 1972. In Eisenstadt, the court declared unconstitutional a Massachusetts law banning contraceptive use per se because it violated the rights of individuals under the equality clause of the 14th Amendment. Judge Brennan said, “Rights must be equal for single and married people,” saying Griswold`s right to privacy extends to unmarried people and that the state cannot justify denying birth control to unmarried people because it is consistent with the equality clause. Eisenstadt and Griswold provided significant support to birth control advocates, but they did not end the legal debate in the United States over access to contraceptives. 1916 Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The following year, a New York court found Sanger guilty of “maintaining a public nuisance” by distributing contraceptives and sentenced her to 30 days in prison. After his release, Sanger reopened his clinic and continued his arrests and prosecutions. In 1917, she began publishing the journal Birth Control Review to educate the public about contraception. Before the pill was approved, “American women were extremely limited in their ability to delay, place or prevent pregnancies,” says Megan L. Kavanaugh, a senior scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization in New York City. Contraceptive use has been shown to reduce the rate of children born into poverty because parents are able to plan the right financially stable time to have a child.
In addition, unintended pregnancies have been found to result in parental division or abandonment of children, making single-parent households more likely to be affected by poverty. In fact, between 1970 and 2012, this led to a 25% increase in the child poverty rate. One study also concluded that if women under 30 used birth control pills as a preventative measure against unintended pregnancies, the child poverty rate could drop by about half a percentage point in a year. [74] 1968 The FDA approves intrauterine devices (IUDs) and launches the first versions called Lippes Loop and Copper 7. Within a few years, more than 10% of women who used contraceptives had an IUD. When the pill was approved in 1960, women had relatively few contraceptive options, and the pill offered more reliability and convenience than methods such as condoms or diaphragms, said Dr. Eve Espey, chair of the Department of Health/Gynecology and Family Planning at the University of New Mexico. The impact of hormonal birth control on women`s (and men`s) lives can`t be overstated, Kavanaugh says. Fifty years ago, the 7.
In June 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision on contraception that would have a profound impact on women`s lives. The birth control pill had hit the market in 1960, but in much of the United States it was illegal to promote contraception. The Connecticut law even completely criminalized the use of contraceptives. When Estelle Griswold, then executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton, then chairman of the Department of Obstetrics at Yale University School of Medicine, opened a birth control clinic, they were sued — and both appealed, all the way to the Supreme Court. 1873 Congress passes the Comstock Act, which criminalizes the use of the U.S. Postal Service to send profanity, contraceptives, abortifacients, or sex toys, and authorizes the Postal Service to confiscate birth control sold by mail.
The bill`s main promoter and namesake, Anthony Comstock, becomes a special agent of the U.S. Postal Service to enforce the law. Many states passed similar laws in the following years. In addition, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fertility and birth rates, as well as demand for contraceptives, have changed from pre-pandemic levels, with more people seeking contraceptive methods during and immediately after the pandemic, which was associated with lower birth rates. [82] This is part of a general trend that can also be seen in other previous pandemics such as SARS, Zika, and the Spanish flu. [82] In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court won a major victory for birth control advocates in Griswold v. Connecticut. The court declared unconstitutional a Connecticut law banning the use of contraceptives by a couple because it violates the right to privacy enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
Justice Douglas analyzed Griswold against the 14th Amendment doctrine, recognized that the fundamental right to privacy was binding on states, and found state law unconstitutional after rigorous review. However, Griswolds Holding did not go beyond married couples and only dealt with the use, not the sale or manufacture of contraceptives. After World War II, the birth control movement had achieved the goal of legalizing birth control, and advocacy for reproductive rights focused on abortion, public funding, and insurance coverage. [28] People have long tried many methods to prevent pregnancy. However, these efforts have often been hampered by governments, religious institutions, health professionals and others who have attempted to control reproduction by blocking access to contraceptives and/or forcibly imposing them on certain populations.