Keith Mack
Contraception was not restricted by law in the United States throughout most of the 19th century. However, in the 1870s, a social purity movement emerged, targeting vice, prostitution, and obscenity. This campaign, led by postal inspector Anthony Comstock, resulted in the 1873 Comstock Act, which prohibited the mailing of contraceptives and contraceptive information. Many states followed suit, enacting similar laws known collectively as the Comstock Laws, which imposed restrictions on the use, distribution, and possession of contraceptives. These laws proved unpopular, and activists like Margaret Sanger challenged them by opening birth control clinics and distributing contraceptive information. Court victories in the 1930s, such as United States v. One Package, began to weaken anti-contraception laws, and by the 1950s and 1960s, most states had legalized birth control. Landmark Supreme Court decisions, such as Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 and Eisenstadt v. Baird in 1972, further protected the right to privacy and access to contraception for married and unmarried individuals. Despite these advancements, the legal debate over access to contraceptives continued, with some states introducing measures to protect these rights in response to recent Supreme Court decisions.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Laws | Comstock Act, anti-obscenity laws, state laws |
| Entities Affected | Married and unmarried persons, clinicians |
| Entities Responsible | Congress, Supreme Court, state legislators, police |
| Entities Challenging | Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood, Estelle Griswold, Lee Buxton |
| Outcomes | Increased access to contraceptives, legalisation of abortion, establishment of birth control clinics |
| Recent Developments | Constitutional amendments, ballot measures, bills introduced in several states to protect the right to contraception |
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What You'll Learn
Margaret Sanger challenged a New York law in 1916
In the early 1900s, contraceptives, abortion, and even birth control literature were illegal in much of the United States. Margaret Sanger, born in 1879, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. She was also a first-wave feminist who believed that women should be able to decide if and when to have children.
Sanger's commitment to birth control stemmed from personal tragedy. She was one of eleven children born to a working-class Irish Catholic family in Corning, New York. At age nineteen, she witnessed her mother die of tuberculosis, wasted away from the strain of eleven childbirths and seven miscarriages. This tragedy led Sanger to turn her attention from nursing to the need for better contraceptives.
In 1914, Sanger coined the term "birth control" and began providing women with information and contraceptives. She also published "The Woman Rebel" with the express goal of triggering a legal challenge to the Comstock anti-obscenity laws banning the dissemination of information about contraception.
In 1916, Sanger actively challenged a New York anti-obscenity law by opening a birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. This was one of the first birth control clinics in the United States. Sanger's sister, Ethel Byrne, and another birth control advocate, Fania Mindell, worked with her to open the clinic, called the Brownsville Clinic. The clinic provided birth control information but did not dispense contraceptives. However, Sanger was not a physician, and her actions violated Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code, which prohibited the distribution, advertisement, or sale of materials or information about contraception. Ten days after the clinic was opened, Sanger was arrested and briefly jailed. She reopened the clinic in November 1916 but was arrested again, along with Byrne and Mindell, for violating the New York Penal Code.
In 1917, the Court of Special Sessions in Brooklyn tried Sanger, Byrne, and Mindell separately and found them guilty of violating the New York Penal Code. However, in 1918, the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany broadened the justification for physicians to prescribe contraceptives to married patients in the case of The People of the State of New York v. Margaret H. Sanger (People v. Sanger). While the presiding judge, Frederick Crane, supported a criminal conviction against Sanger, he also ruled that under Section 1145 of the New York Penal Code, physicians could provide contraceptives to married couples for the prevention of disease. This ruling broadened New York's legal definition of disease and increased physicians' ability to prescribe contraceptives in the state.
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The Comstock Act of 1873
The Act was passed in response to the proliferation of obscene materials in the 1870s. Comstock, who was head of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, urged legislators to pass the measure to prevent crime and corruption of children. The Act was first introduced as a rider to the Post Office Consolidation Act of 1872, which read:
> That no obscene book, pamphlet, picture, print, or other publication of a vulgar or indecent character, or any letter upon the envelope of which, or postal card upon which scurrilous epithets may have been written or printed, or disloyal devices printed or engraved, shall be carried in the mail; and any person who shall knowingly deposit, or cause to be deposited, for mailing or for delivery, any such obscene publication, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall, for every such offence, be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, according to the circumstances and aggravation of the offense.
The Comstock Act was later amended by an Act of Congress on March 3, 1873, and it was signed into law by President Ulysses Grant. The Act made it illegal to send "obscene, lewd or lascivious," "immoral," or "indecent" publications through the mail, including writings or instruments pertaining to contraception and abortion, even if written by a physician. Many women who advocated for birth control were arrested under the law, including Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman. Numerous doctors were also arrested and convicted for supplying written materials explaining pregnancy and how to prevent it.
The Act has been amended multiple times since its initial enactment, most recently in 1996. While the scope of enforcement has narrowed after various court rulings, the Comstock Act remains relevant today, with modern enforcement primarily focused on prosecuting child pornography.
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Anti-birth control laws in Massachusetts
Massachusetts has a long history of fighting for reproductive freedom. Despite federal Comstock Laws in the late 1800s outlawing the distribution of information about contraceptives, Massachusetts was home to one of the country's first birth control clinics, the Brookline Mothers' Health Office, which opened in 1932. However, police shut down all five of the Birth Control League's clinics in 1937.
In the early 1950s, scientists began creating a pill for contraceptive purposes, and the first successful human trials were conducted in 1954. However, anti-birth control laws in Massachusetts made it impossible for large-scale human studies to take place in the state, so the first trials occurred in Puerto Rico. By 1965, Griswold v. Connecticut had legalized the distribution of contraception to married people, and in 1972, Eisenstadt v. Baird expanded this to include unmarried people. In the same year, the Supreme Court ruled that a Massachusetts law prohibiting the use of contraception was unconstitutional because it violated the rights of single persons under the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
Massachusetts has continued to advocate for reproductive freedom. In 2017, Massachusetts became the first state to pass an ACCESS law, which ensures that residents have access to affordable birth control, in response to the Trump administration's attacks on reproductive rights. In 2019, Massachusetts challenged Federal regulations that allowed employers to use a "moral exemption" to deny insurance coverage for birth control. As of 2024, Massachusetts has legal protections for the right to contraception.
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Connecticut's anti-birth control laws
In 1879, Connecticut passed a law that banned the use of any drug, medical device, or other instrument in furthering contraception. This law, known as the "Little Comstock Act", was one of the most restrictive in the country, prohibiting any person from using "any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception". The law was rarely enforced, but courts resisted challenges to bans on contraception, including in the Supreme Court's 1961 decision in Poe v. Ullman.
In 1961, Estelle Griswold, the head of Planned Parenthood in Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton, a gynecologist at the Yale School of Medicine, opened a birth control clinic in New Haven, directly challenging the state's anti-contraception law. The clinic opened on November 1, 1961, and received dozens of appointment requests from married women seeking birth control advice and prescriptions.
Griswold and Buxton's actions led to the legal dispute known as Griswold v. Connecticut, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1965. The Court held that the Connecticut law prohibiting the use of contraceptives by married couples was unconstitutional, as it violated the right to privacy implicit in the U.S. Constitution. By a vote of 7-2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law, establishing the basis for the right to privacy with respect to intimate practices.
The Griswold v. Connecticut decision was a significant victory for proponents of birth control, but it did not end the legal debate in the U.S. over access to contraceptives. In 1972, the Supreme Court extended the Griswold holding to include single persons in the Eisenstadt v. Baird case, striking down a Massachusetts law that prohibited the use of contraception.
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Griswold v. Connecticut
In 1879, the state of Connecticut passed a law that banned the use of any drug, medical device, or other instrument in furthering contraception. This law was rarely enforced, but courts had resisted challenges to bans on contraception, most notably in the Supreme Court's 1961 decision in Poe v. Ullman.
In 1961, Estelle Griswold, the Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut (PPLC), and Dr. C. Lee Buxton, a licensed physician and a professor at the Yale Medical School, opened a birth control clinic in New Haven, Connecticut, in direct challenge to the state law. The clinic opened on November 1, 1961, and that same day received its first ten patients and dozens of appointment requests from married women seeking birth control advice and prescriptions. Less than two days later, police officers arrived, and Griswold explained the clinic's operations and openly admitted to breaking state law. A week later, the detectives arrived with arrest warrants. Griswold and Buxton were arrested, tried in a one-day bench trial, found guilty, and fined $100 each. The conviction was upheld by the Appellate Division of the Circuit Court, and by the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Griswold and Buxton then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case known as Griswold v. Connecticut. On June 7, 1965, the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision in favor of Griswold, striking down Connecticut's state law against contraceptives. The Court held that the U.S. Constitution protects the "right to marital privacy" as a fundamental constitutional right, implicit in the Fourteenth Amendment, and that this right was binding on the states. The Court's decision established the basis for the right to privacy with respect to intimate practices, viewing this right as "protected from governmental intrusion".
The Griswold v. Connecticut decision provided substantial support to the proponents of birth control, but it did not end the legal debate in the US over access to contraceptives. In 1972, the Supreme Court extended the holding in Griswold to include single persons in the case of Eisenstadt v. Baird, holding that a Massachusetts law prohibiting the use of contraception per se was unconstitutional because it violated the rights of single persons under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
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Frequently asked questions
The 1873 Comstock Act, a federal law, prohibited the mailing of contraceptives and any form of contraceptive information. Many states also passed similar laws, collectively known as the Comstock Laws.
Anthony Comstock, a postal inspector and leader of the purity movement, successfully lobbied for the passage of the 1873 Comstock Act.
Yes, in 1916, Margaret Sanger challenged a New York anti-obscenity law by opening a birth control clinic in Brooklyn. She won the right for women to use birth control for the prevention or control of disease.
In 1965, the US Supreme Court made a landmark decision that further eroded the Comstock Laws sanctioning birth control. In 1970, Congress removed references to contraception from federal anti-obscenity laws.
