# Were you aware that it required a Supreme Court ruling to legalize birth control? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 15, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977 "2020-10-15T01:40:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/21 "2020-10-15T22:34:22Z")
Until the 30s the federal government claimed the power ban advertisements of contraceptives and sex education materials (can’t find the citation, but it was Mary Dennett’s case under the federal Comstock laws); also to interfere with doctors who ordered contraceptive devices from overseas. _United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries_ , 86 F.2d 737 (2d Cir. 1936). ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/22 "2020-10-15T23:29:19Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > _United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries_ , 86 F.2d 737 (2d Cir. 1936). This case name tickles the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/23 "2020-10-15T23:29:59Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Fixed both. Thank you Hari\_Seldon ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/24 "2020-10-16T14:54:03Z")
Interesting. I wonder if that 1879 statute considers “assists”, “counsels”, or “causes” to include the “railroad” method? 😳 ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/25 "2020-10-16T18:58:16Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > > [@Max\_S](#): > > > > _United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries_ , 86 F.2d 737 (2d Cir. 1936). > > This case name tickles the hell out of me. I keep seeing “peccaries” and wondering what kind of trouble the Asian javelinas got themselves into. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/26 "2020-10-17T07:07:47Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > Regardless of the exact theory of the origin of the right to privacy, if Roe is overturned by rejecting the right to privacy, a number of modern precedents would be in jeopardy. Contraception, healthcare and end of life decisions, LGBT rights cases, as well as other cases based on unenumerated rights, like parents’ rights to raise their children without undue interference by the government. If our soon-to-be New And Improved Enlightened Supreme Court does away with Roe, no telling what they’ll go after next! ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/27 "2020-10-17T14:40:16Z")
A friend of my wife says she would like to see Planned Parenthood go away, she says that organization is a tool of the devil. I told her that if it wasn’t for PP, my daughter might not be alive today. My daughter had just delivered her 4th (and last) child and was using a PP clinic for her after birth care. A blood test came back abnormal, she was then diagnosed with lymphoma. The PP clinic went out their way to get my daughter the cancer treatment she needed and she is still alive today. I showed this friend all the services PP provides and in many cases, they do this with no cost to the patients. I don’t know if I changed her mind but she did admit that PP does appear to do a lot of good things. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/28 "2020-10-20T15:13:32Z")
I’m not quite old enough to remember that, but I remember going a job interview and being told by the interviewer that while I was fully qualified, he didn’t think the “guys” weren’t “ready” to work with a woman so they couldn’t give me the job. Why did I even get the interview? Because the interviewer kept toying with the idea of hiring a woman, thinking he should consider it if he found a qualified one, but when it came down to the wire he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. Maybe next year. He actually told me all that. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977/29 "2020-10-20T15:24:50Z")
Along that same line, there was a small segment of largely conservative society opposed to interracial marriage on the grounds that it made life too difficult for the children of said marriages. “It’s not that I’m a bad person, see, it’s all these other bigoted people who are the problem.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-aware-that-it-required-a-supreme-court-ruling-to-legalize-birth-control/922977.md?page=1)