Women's Right to Privacy

Birth Control

The Comstock Act (1873) was passed in the US which made the advertisement, information and distribution of birth control illegal. It also allowed the postal service to confiscate birth control sold through the post.

In 1916, a woman named Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the US. The following year she was found guilty of maintaining a public nuisance and was sentenced to prison for 30 days. When she was released, she re-opened her clinic and continued to provide the service through more arrests and prosecutions. Because of Margaret Sanger, the federal ban on birth control was lifted, this was due to a case involving her in 1938. This ended the Comstock era. Sanger was a very important influence in regards to the progression of birth control. While she was in her 80s in 1950, she underwrote the research necessary to create the first human birth control pill. She raised $150,000 for the project. Her work led to the first oral contraceptive, Enovid, being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as contraception in 1960.

In 1965 the Supreme Court (in Griswold v. Connecticut) allowed married couples the right to use birth control, it ruled that this right was protected in the Constitution as a right to privacy. Despite this progression, unmarried women in 26 states were still denied the right to birth control. Finally in 1972, the Supreme Court, as a result of Baird v. Eisenstadt) legalised birth control for all citizens of the country, regardless of their marital status. In 2013, after many legal battles, a brand of emergency contraceptive pill (Plan B One-Step) became available without a prescription on pharmacy shelves, marking a huge step forward for women to have the right to do whatever they wish to their own bodies.

Roe v. Wade 1973 – The right to abortion

In 1971, Norma McCorvey (known as Jane Roe) was a resident of Texas who sought an abortion. However, Henry Wade (the district attorney of Dallas County) enforced a law that prevented women from having an abortion unless it was to save their life. 

McCorvey filed the case suing Wade, asking the Constitutional question of “Does the Constitution embrace the right of a woman to obtain an abortion, nullifying the Texas prohibition?” The ruling allows for legal abortions throughout the pregnancy but simultaneously allows for individual states to decide on the regulation of abortion during the second and third trimesters.

The Supreme Court decided that a woman’s right to abortion was within the bounds of the right to privacy (recognised in Griswold v. Connecticut) which was protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. By making this decision, the Court allowed women to have the right to an abortion throughout the entire pregnancy and introduced levels of state interest for the regulation of the abortion in the second and third trimesters. This ruling affected the laws of 46 states.

Norma McCorvey gave her baby up for adoption. By bringing this issue to the Supreme Court, McCorvey raised the issue at a constitutional level, and by winning, allowed many women to have safe and legal abortions without risking their lives or the careers of the doctors who performed them.