When Was Birth Control Considered Obscene?

Correpondence on Illinios judge ruling that contraceptives are "per se obscene" two years after the federal law legalized birth control. 

The Comstock Act of 1873 not only ruled contraceptives illegal, but classified them as obscene and immoral, and placed them under obscenity law. If something is determined "obscene", it is illegal to publish, acquire, educate the public on it, or speak on it in any capticity. After the U.S. Court of Appeals legalized birth control through physicians direction on November 30, 1936, birth control was effectivly taken off the obscenity classification at the federal level.

Nevertheless, many state laws maintained their stance on contraceptives as "obscene", with judges ruling them as such in court cases roughly two years after the federal law appealed the classification. The differences in jurisdiction between state and federal law lead to discrimmination and inequality of contraceptive use throughout the United States.