Griswold V. Wade Case Study

Roe v. Wade was not the first point in history abortion was discussed. Prior to the court case, many states, and eventually the Supreme Court, ruled on the constitutionality of state laws which preluded Roe v. Wade. In 1879, a Connecticut law was enacted stating that any one person who attempted through medical means to prevent conception of a child should “be fined not less than forty dollars or imprisoned no less than sixty days” (“Griswold v. Connecticut…”). This meant that any form of contraceptive (i.e. birth control, condoms, and abortion) was illegal in the eyes of the Connecticut state court. In 1939, the Waterbury Maternal Health Center in Waterbury, Connecticut was raided by police for their practice which helped “married women who could not afford private …show more content…
Connecticut…”). When the Griswold v. Connecticut case was appealed to the Supreme Court in 1965, a seven to two decision determined that the Connecticut law was invalid and “discouraged marital sex for reasons other than procreation by criminalizing birth control counseling or the provision of contraceptives” (Markels). Because of this case, any married couples who wanted to use birth control were protected by their right to privacy provided in the Fourteenth Amendment (“Roe v. Wade:…”). Five years later, in 1970, the court case Eisenstadt v. Baird disputed whether the result of Griswold v. Connecticut should also be extended to any single woman. Violating a Massachusetts law that prohibited the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried persons and the distribution by those who were not authorized. William Baird, a lecturer at Boston University, gave “Emko Vaginal Foam to a woman following his Boston University lecture on birth control and over-population” (“EISENSTADT v.