June 7, 1965: Griswold v. Connecticut ruling legalizes the use of contraception by married couples

Saturday 7 June 2008

The Supreme Court ruled June 7, 1965, that the Constitution protects the right to privacy in a case that tested a Connecticut law passed in 1879 preventing the use of any drug or medical instrument used as contraception. Estelle Griswold, an executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton were arrested after opening a birth control clinic in New Haven. Griswold appealed her conviction, which was overturned by the Supreme Court, invalidating the 1879 law. Future Supreme Court decisions extended the ruling made in Griswold v. Connecticut. In the 1972 case Eisenstadt v. Baird, the holding was extended to unmarried couples. The Texas law that made it illegal to aid a woman in receiving an abortion was overturned in 1973 by Roe v. Wade.