Happy anniversary to your right to birth control!

Estelle Griswold (left) and Cornelia Jahncke, president of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut (Right) celebrate their Supreme Court win.


Estelle Griswold (left) and Cornelia Jahncke, president of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut (right) celebrate their win.

On this day 48 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that (married) couples have a right to use contraception. Although a vocal minority–including a recent presidential candidate–thinks this ruling never should have happened, the vast majority of us seem to like it quite a bit. As conservative attacks against birth control access continue–over the past three years, more than 60 lawsuits have been filed against the contraceptive coverage benefit in Obamacare–we need to remain ready to fight for this right that our generation has always been able to take for granted.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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