In Griswold v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns one of the last state laws, in Connecticut, prohibiting the prescription or use of contraceptives by married couples. The Court’s landmark decision — coming five years after oral contraceptives became available to American women and 49 years after Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. — legalizes the use of birth control and paves the way for the widespread acceptance of contraception that now exists in this country. The ruling was extended to single women several years later in Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U. S. 438 (1972).