Griswold V. Connecticut

Cultural exchange disseminates social ideas, and those ideas transform societies. The US was strictly opposed to sexual promiscuity before the 20th century, but by 1965, in Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruled that a law preventing access to contraception in Connecticut was unconstitutional. In those few decades of the early 1900s, something transformed American society to become tolerant of birth control. In the 20th century, America became increasingly interconnected with the rest of the world, and this caused social movements and ideas to spread. The societal acceptance of birth control which made Griswold v. Connecticut possible was a direct result of the increasing globalization in the 20th century because the exposure to the
The isolated nature of American society before the 20th century caused the conservative views on sexuality to be retained because there was very little outside influence, so the lack of contact with different societies led the status quo regarding sex to remain intact. According to the economist, Richard Posner, sex can be categorized with three main motives: procreation, pleasure, and social reasons (Posner 111). Victorian ideas guided American society before the 20th century, and the views emphasized that procreation was the sole purpose of sex (Posner 61). Public policy often encouraged the regulation of sex, such as the Comstock laws after the Civil War (Posner 61). In an effort to eradicate vice after the Civil War, a social purity movement came into existence, led by Anthony Comstock, a Union veteran (Johnson 6-7). To discourage sexual pleasure, Comstock laws were created which prohibited prostitution, pornography, the use of contraception, as well as other “obscene” activities (Johnson 6-7). In order to purify their state, Connecticut created a law in 1879 that prohibited the use of contraception by any person (Johnson 8). In Connecticut and other states with
Since the US was still industrializing in the early 20th century, the commercial relations were fairly new, so the cultural exchange that accompanies the process was only just beginning. Due to this slow diffusion of ideas, earlier advocates of birth control, like Margaret Sanger in the 1910s, were seen as “sex radicals” because they undermined the idea that procreation was the only reason for sex (Johnson 8-9). However, shortly after, the eugenics movement that originated in Great Britain gained extreme popularity in the United States; eugenics was a “newcomer in America” in 1911 (Field 33) and then its follower base grew drastically. Once eugenics became integrated into the American medical profession, doctors joined earlier advocates, like Sanger, to try and increase access to birth control in order to ensure that they stopped the “unfit lower classes” from reproducing (Johnson 13). Thus, racism and classism through eugenics allowed the earlier birth control movements to gain traction (Powderly S9). After the spread of the eugenics movement due to the increased ties to foreign nations, birth control became