Coercion of Pregnant Adult Women
Some courts, states, and agencies may decide that women are not taking good enough care of themselves and the fetus while they are pregnant. It may be that they are using drugs or alcohol or may not be getting proper medical care. Judges have allowed such women to be imprisoned, or have forced them to deliver their babies by cesarean section, or have separated them permanently from their children. Disabled, mentally ill, and poor women have been legally coerced into sterilization or the use of long-term contraceptives.
Women’s rights groups and medical groups are protesting the use of this kind of legal force against women, whether pregnant or not. These groups believe that women’s rights are being violated. They believe that there are better ways to help women in these situations.
It was not until 1965 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that it was legal for married people in all states to use contraception. The court said that contraception for married couples was part of the “right to privacy,” which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in Eisenstadt v. Baird that unmarried people also had the right to use contraception.
It is also legal to advertise contraceptive products on television. Major television networks, however, have refused to broadcast such ads, even though smaller networks and cable stations have not lost viewers or advertisers by doing so.
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