Estelle Griswold

Estelle Griswold, then executive director of Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, was the defendant (along with physician and professor Lee Buxton) in the 1961 landmark Supreme Court case Griswold v. State of Connecticut. The state courts originally convicted them under the Connecticut law outlawing devices or drugs preventing pregnancy and assisting or advising another in using them. The Supreme Court ruled these laws unconstitutional under the protection of privacy in one's home and private life guaranteed under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The Court overturned the original conviction against Griswold and Buxton and found that Connecticut should allow married couples to use birth control.

Other landmark Supreme Court cases over abortion rights and family planning, including Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania et al. v. Casey, governor of Pennsylvania, et al ., have cited this case in their final judgments.

Source and Photograph: Women in American History

Meagan Petersen '07 (mpeterse@wellesley.edu)
Created: November 2004
Last Modified: December 2004
Expires: June 2005