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In an op-ed today in Women’s Health, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, celebrates Estelle Griswold, who “as the executive director of Planned Parenthood of Connecticut in the fifties and sixties, spent years fighting an 1879 state law that made it illegal to use or prescribe contraception. Griswold  took her case all the way to the Supreme Court—and on June 7, 1965, she won, legalizing birth control in the state of Connecticut for married couples.”

The court's landmark decision — coming five years after oral contraceptives became available to American women and 49 years after Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. — provided the first constitutional protection for birth control for women across the country.

“Forty-eight years after Griswold v. Connecticut,”  Richards says “women across America continue to see the fruits of Griswold’s labor.”  She improved women’s health, led the way to Roe v. Wade, helped Planned Parenthood be there for millions of women, encouraged generations of women to follow their dreams, helped women bring home the bacon, and opened the door to the Affordable Care Act, which insures all women have access to birth control without a co-pay.

You can read Richards’ full Women’s Health piece here: blog.womenshealthmag.com/whexperts/griswold-vs-connecticut/

BACKGROUND

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America “Birth Control: We All Benefit” campaign reminds Americans and their elected representatives that we all benefit when women have access to affordable birth control, despite the continued attempts by some politicians and for-profit companies to take away the no co-pay birth control benefit provided through the Affordable Care Act.

·         Approximately 47 million women nationally, including 4.9 million Latinas, stand to benefit from the Affordable Care Act’s women’s preventive health care provision, including no co-pay birth control. Already, it’s estimated that nearly 27 million women nationally are benefiting from the provision, which went into effect last August.  

·         You can read stories from supporters of the birth control benefit here: www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/files/1213/6537/4425/4-8-13_BC_Stories.pdf

·         You can read the Planned Parenthood fact-sheet on the impact of legal birth control and the challenges that remain here:  www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/Griswold_v_Connecticut.pdf

Source

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Contact

Planned Parenthood Federation of America media office: 212-261-4433

Published

June 07, 2013

Updated

June 08, 2016

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