Massachusetts legalizes access to birth control for married women, one of the last states in the nation to do so. Access for unmarried women follows soon after.
After the Supreme Court finding in favor of Estelle Griswold in Griswold v. State of Connecticut in June 1965, states remove or revise their laws banning contraceptives ("Comstock laws"). In 1966 Massachusetts revises its Comstock laws to make contraceptives legal for married women to access from their physicians.
Within a few years, the laws are challenged on the basis that they discriminate against unmarried women. In 1972, the Supreme Court finds in favor of Boston University lecturer William Baird in Eisenstadt v. Baird, and the Massachusetts law banning the sale and advertisement of contraceptives to unmarried women is found to be unconstitutional. Unmarried women aged 18 or older then have the right to access contraception.
A 2011 report summarizes the benefits to women of having access to birth control as "increases in women's educational attainment and labor-force participation, wages, birthrates, and the outcomes of children." (Bailey et al, 2011). Notably, the inventor of the birth control pill, John Rock, was born and raised in Marlborough.
