Why the Fight to Protect Americans Rights to Contraception and Privacy is So Essential

How important do you think the right to privacy is? Did you know that some politicians want to take away access to contraception? Did you know there was no federal right to contraception before the Griswold v. Connecticut decision in 1965? Hence, states and the federal government were free to ban or create limitations on contraception, and they did.

Thanks to the Supreme Court and other forces on the far right, the threats today to Americans’ rights to privacy and contraception – long taken for granted – are extremely real. 

Americans for Contraception is an organization dedicated to protecting Americans’ rights to contraception and privacy. 

The Griswold decision (1965) found a federal right to privacy in the Constitution (which is not explicitly stated in the Constitution but instead derived from the text of the Constitution). The specific issue in Griswold was whether a state law that barred married couples from accessing contraception was constitutional. The Supreme Court concluded that the constitutional right to privacy included married couples getting contraception.

The Court extended this right to unmarried couples in 1972 in Eisenstadt v. Baird. Before Griswold, it was technically illegal in many states to distribute contraception or even information about birth control. Various federal laws, such as The Comstock Act of 1873, also prohibited the sending of “obscene” materials through the U.S. Mail (obscene included information about contraception and condoms). Note The Comstock law is now being invoked to try to prohibit using the U.S. Mail to send abortion pills.

To give context on the central importance of the right to privacy – it is the basis for marriage equality, interracial marriage, medical privacy, etc. It does NOT include abortion anymore, at least for now.

Congress failed over the years to protect abortion access by codifying it as a federal law, and now it’s been overturned. We cannot sit by and wait for far-right justices on the bench to undo decades of precedent and progress by letting Americans’ right to contraception suffer a similar fate. Congress MUST codify the right to contraception before it’s too late!​​

DID YOU KNOW THERE WAS NO FEDERAL RIGHT TO CONTRACEPTION BEFORE THE GRISWOLD V. CONNECTICUT DECISION IN 1965? 

• In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that a state's ban on the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy.
  
  
• Before the critical 1965 Supreme Court ruling Griswold v. Connecticut, state and federal morality laws prohibited access to contraceptives.
  
  
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas could not have been clearer about his support for overturning the constitutional right to contraception intentions when he called on the Court to overturn the right to contraception.
  
  
• The right to contraception is a constitutionally protected right that is central to an individual’s privacy, health, well-being, and ability to participate in our nation's social and economic life. We cannot afford to leave such a fundamental right to the whims of this far-right Court, which is why Congress must approve legislation guaranteeing access to contraception in federal law.