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Article: Griswold v. Connecticut
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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GRISWOLD V. CONNECTICUT,
GRISWOLD V. CONNECTICUT,
381 U.S. 479 (1965). When the state Planned Parenthood League opened a clinic in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1961, two staff members were arrested and fined under a rarely used law for giving advice and a prescription for a contraceptive to a married couple. The law, a legacy of Anthony Comstock's anti-vice campaign of the late nineteenth century, had been interpreted to ban the use of contraceptives and the opening of public clinics, which meant that women could not attain access to reliable contraception unless they could afford private physicians.
The Supreme Court decision in
Griswold v. Connecticut
reversed the Connecticut law by ...