The Republican war on women did not end when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Now they are coming for your birth control pills – no, this is not a joke –and Rob Wittman is leading the charge.
For most of our history, contraception was whispered about. In most states, it was illegal to manufacture, sell, use, or teach about contraceptive devices. Under the Connecticut Comstock Act of 1873 it was illegal to use “any drug, medicinal article, or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception“.
In 1961 Estelle Griswold and Dr. Lee Buxton opened a clinic in New Haven to teach about contraception and provide contraceptives. Griswold was arrested, found guilty, and appealed. Her case went to the Supreme Court who ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965, that “marital privacy” is a protected right and contraception is a protected private matter — just as Roe v. Wade was based largely on privacy rights.
In his concurrence with overturning Roe, Justice Thomas wrote: “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, . . . Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
According to Thomas, it is “erroneous” for people to have the right to contraception and Griswold was a mistake.
In an attempt to protect access to contraception, in July 2022 the House of Representatives passed the “Right to Contraception Act”. ROB WITTMAN AND 194 OTHER REPUBLICANS VOTED “NAY”.
The same groups who worked for 50 years to overturn Roe are quietly working to overturn Griswold because they claim contraception is a “form of abortion” – they lie, it is not.
Don’t be fooled: Republicans and Rob Wittman are coming after your birth control pills.
Wittman must be voted out of office in November.