The case involved two petitions that required the Constitutional Court to examine certain elements that imposed regulations on sterilization. The first petitioner challenged the constitutionality of the Minister of Health Decree 12/1987 (VIII. 19.) EüM on Sterilization (hereinafter “D1”), which imposed certain restrictions (related to age and number of prior blood children) on a person …Read more

The League of Housewives, Consumers and Users of Argentina [Liga de Amas de Casa, Consumidores y Usuarios de la República Argentina] requested that judiciary declare that articles 5 and 7 of Act 418 and its amendment 439 of the City of Buenos Aires were contrary to the National Constitution. The Plaintiff alleged that under the …Read more

In 1996, Glen Fielding was sentenced to four years imprisonment. Whilst incarcerated, Fielding, a man who had sex with men, requested condoms but was refused on the basis that it was against Prison Service policy to provide condoms to a prisoner who was not HIV-positive; there was no evidence that Fielding was HIV positive. The …Read more

“Marion” was a fourteen year old girl with an “intellectual disability”, severe deafness, epilepsy, an ataxic gait and “behavioural problems”. She could not care for herself. Her parents proposed that Marion undertake a hysterectomy and an ovarienectomy (the Procedures). The hysterectomy was proposed to prevent natural pregnancy and menstruation and the psychological and behavioural consequences …Read more

Eve was a mentally disabled young woman suffering from a condition that made it extremely difficult for her to communicate with others. She was not capable of understanding the consequential relationship between intercourse, pregnancy and birth.  Mrs. E, her mother, was concerned that Eve might innocently become pregnant, which would mean that she, an elderly …Read more

The Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) issued a memorandum of guidance to local health authorities that stated that, inter alia, “consultations between doctors and patients are confidential,” even for children less than 16. The memorandum noted that while “it would be most unusual,” a doctor could advise the child regarding contraception without parental …Read more

In 1975, the Constitutional Court of Germany struck down a law that decriminalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The applicants claimed that the resulting amendment to the German criminal code, which criminalized abortion (except under certain circumstances) in the first trimester of pregnancy violated Article 8 (right to a private life) of the European Convention on …Read more

The Respondent, Population Planning Associates (PPA) was a corporation primarily engaged in the mail-order retail sale of nonmedical contraceptive devices. PPA regularly advertised its products in periodicals, and accepted and filled orders by mailing contraceptives to purchasers. The advertisements and order forms did not limit the availability of PPA’s products to persons of any particular …Read more

The Respondent was convicted under chapter 272 of the Massachusetts General Laws (Crimes Against Chastity, Morality, Decency and Good Order) (the Act) for exhibiting contraceptive articles while presenting a lecture on contraception to a group of university students, and for providing a contraceptive article to a young woman after the lecture. Section 21 of the …Read more

The Appellants, who had opened a birth control clinic, were convicted under the General Statutes of Connecticut of 1958 (the Act) as accessories in crime for providing information and medical advice on contraception and prescribing contraceptives to married individuals. The Act criminalized the use of “any drug, medicinal article or instrument” by any person “for …Read more