 Birth control and abortion are common practices the world over. Felt by many to be deeply private matters, birth control and abortion were once criminalized on moral and medical grounds, but are safe and widely available today. Laws categorically criminalizing contraception and abortion were struck down in the U.S., Canada, most of Europe, Japan and Taiwan by the final third of the 20th century. In the United States, in 1965 the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing birth control in Griswold v Connecticut, on the ground that married couples have a “right to privacy” to use birth control provided by physicians, grounded in the Bill of Rights and the 14 Amendment. Several of the most effective forms of contraception are only available through a medical doctor, including, in some countries oral contraceptives, interuterine devices, and transdermal implants. 