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The Right to Use Birth Control

5 October, 2015 - 17:38

The right to privacy was first established in the US Supreme Court case of Griswoldv.Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965). In Griswold, the defendants, Planned Parenthood employees, were convicted of prescribing birth control as accessories under two Connecticut statutes that criminalized the use of birth control. The Court found the statutes unconstitutional, holding that the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments created a “penumbra” of unenumerated constitutional rights, including zones of privacy. 1 The Court stated that maritaprivacy, especially, deserved the utmost protection from governmental intrusion. The Griswolcase set the stage for other fundamental privacy rights related to intimacy, including the right to an abortion and the right to consensual sexual relations.