Should we allow states to choose weather or not contraception should be legal in the state?

So I’m a constitutional originalist which means we look at the text of the constitution and interpret when it meant at the time it was written. We are not against amendments to the constitution but if an amendment was passed in January 31 1865 (13th amendment that outlawed slavery ) that means we read and interpret the 13th amendment as it was written and what it meant in 1865. Anything that’s not explicity mentioned in the constitution is up for the states to decide whether they want it or not. Abortion gay marriage contraception, anal sex None of that is mentioned in the constitution. Therefore, it is not protected by the constitution. The federal government is not allowed to say anything about these issues only the states are allowed to make rules on these issues. So in Griswold versus Connecticut in 1965 the Supreme Court decide to read into the constitution. Something that is not there and federally legalize contraception on a national level. Which should not have been done given the fact there is nothing about contraception in the constitution. So Connecticut should be allowed to legalize contraception if it wants to. New Hampshire can have contraception legal if it wants to. It’s up to the states it’s not up to the federal government that’s my point.

For the record, I am not saying contraception should be outlawed or I support outlawing contraception. I’m saying it should be up to the states to decide whether contraception to be outlawed in their state and the federal government cannot say anything about it. This is not an argument on whether or not contraception should be legal or not. It’s just an argument on does the federal government have any say in the matter which I don’t think they do because if the constitution says nothing about it, the federal government cannot act on it.

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  • For a state to outlaw contraception, SCOTUS would have to overturn Griswold v Connecticut, which makes contraception a right to privacy issue. Since that’s an implied right, a healthy dose of interpretation is required. I can almost see your state’s right stance there. You’re flat out wrong about gay marriage. The equal protection clause requires laws to be applied equally. As long as you have laws governing marriage, you cannot discriminate based on race, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation or nationality. Once the government involved itself in religious unions and attached legal status to it, the constitution applied and gay marriage was an eventual certainty. The court ignored it for as long as they could with a wink and a nod but eventually they were forced to reckon with an obvious injustice. If they didn’t want to see all people have the right to marry, they should have left marriage to the churches.

    • As far as the gay marriage argument goes. The state could hypothetically make its illegal without making a religious argument. Marriage a controversial arrangements. with the interest of baring and raising children born to the couple without outside help. Considering homosexual marriage doesn’t not bare any children. The government has an interest in keeping its population up (especially now when we’re blowing out the debt and we’re not replacing ourselves). Gay marriage the government isn’t interested in because a man and a man or a women and a women can’t bare children naturally with each other. Also, all politics is inherently religious even secularism itself is a religion. The only true non religion is agnostic because they’re not making a definite claim on whether or not God exists or not. Under a system of agnosticism you would basically have no government.

    • You must have a fundamental misunderstanding of the equal protection clause. None of the arguments you made are constitutionally relevant. You aren’t much of an originalist if you’re arguing against the constitution.

    • Actually I’m not if you look at the tenth amendment

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Most Helpful Girl

  • No! That’s a terrible idea. Some state somewhere might decide to do something stupid and make it illegal. We have to protect the people from stupid states.

    • In a democracy the people elect their representatives. So wouldn’t the people of that state be stupid as well? Every state has its own culture. Also this is why we have the ability to move from state. If you don’t like the policy of the state you live in move. The federal government shouldn’t be allowed to makes laws that aren’t written in the constitution it’s self

    • I totally disagree. The laws and the constitution need to evolve with the times. But I don’t wanna argue so ok.

    • Ah so the Jeffersonian argument. I’m a Hamiltonian Jefferson did argue the constitution should be charged every 20 year every (anti federalist) vs Hamilton which was federalist which believed the constitution was good forever. Along with Washington Adams Madison Lincoln. this is an old argument

Most Helpful Guys

  • I agree mostly, but I think the following part of the the 10th Amendment gets ignored:

    "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

    Madison wrote the 10th Amendment to ensure states would retain their sovereignty and to prevent the government from denying the people their individual freedoms.

    • Exactly we often over look the tenth amendment

  • Why would any govt outlaw condoms or bc pills, iud's, diaframs, or the sponge? They're not just contraception. They'll help yhe passage of STDs. Now if they do no one should have sex unless you want be like The Duggers and others and have 1000 kids. Which is ridiculous... in my opinion.

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What Girls & Guys Said

4 8
  • No, that's already been decided in law since 1965.

  • Nope.

    • Why? Don’t states have the right to self government

    • To an extent, but not on issues that affect medical privacy. How deep do you want any government to get in your family planning and reproductive decisions? As far as I'm concerned, it's not up to the fed or state governments to make those choices for me, or to deprive me of access to contraception.

    • “How deep do you want any government to get in your family planning and reproductive decisions?“ Federal None states I think has more right to get involved in family planning and reproductive decisions. If I don’t lie the policy of the state I can move out of the state. The Federal government can’t deprive you of contraception. The State governments can. It’s like the issue of gay marriage or abortion. The federal government has no right to say gays can or can’t gay married the states have the right to say yes or no to gay marriage. The federal government has no right to codify abortion law, legal or not. If Texas wants to outlaw gay marriage abortion and contraception that’s Texas’s right as a state. If California wants abortion gay marriage and contraception legal that’s their right. The federal government isn’t allowed to have a say in any of these matters. (Again not an argument on whether or not gay marriage, or abortion, legal or illegal, has the power to make the decisions in a federalist system, like we have, we don’t have a centralized government like most European countries have)

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  • if the fed doesn't have laws against it then it should be up to the states, but i think it would be overturned once it was made a big deal

  • if there are enough people that vote against it maybe it should be made into a law.

  • I believe states should be allowed to make that choice. Personally would like if it was all illegal in the US

  • What is the matter with the states? Why are you guys so keen on going back in time?

    • We are massively, huge country the whole idea on how we were founded was off of the federalist base system not a centralized government system so we in the United States try to do everything at the local level rather than at the federal level but that’s the way it was supposed to be the way the founders designed it. This is why we keep going back to the states and say fuck the federal government.

    • No i mean your guys rather go back to a time before the 1950s and not stay with the modern world

    • As far as governance sure, There only 2 countries with larger population than the United States India and China. Both authoritarian. The United States isn’t authoritarian but that’s because we still like the idea of local governments over federal system. Especially with the state the United States in in right now. (No pun intended). We don’t speak the same English language (pregnant people in California vs just pregnant in Florida because Floridians believe only women can get pregnant) we don’t agree what constitutes child abuse (California not transitioning your kid is child abuse in Florida it’s child base to transition your child. We don’t even share a definition of racism Florida believes racism is declination base off of the color of one’s skin. California believes that racism any systems or actions that doesn’t result in equal outcome for all races is racist. This is why we need to go back to the time before the 1950s not with the slavery and Jim Crow obviously. Others wide we will have a revolution in this country you can’t have republicans telling California what to do and have it effect of a centralized government in it’s own state and democratic can’t tell Florida what do on the federal level or that will end in war especially with the extreme position the democrats have taken in 2023

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  • Yes.

  • That is the way the US government is setup. I cannot imagine contraception would be outlawed….
    I could see that the method of distribution to minors would likely be on the table in the various states though..

  • There should be an amendment to the Constitution making it explicitly clear that government is to not interfere with our personal lives like this.

  • Short answer, YES.

  • No no way

  • Yes, of course. Who is that idiot that said no? lol