The anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut, the decision that legalized the use of contraception for married people, usually comes and goes with little notice. (While each year Roe v. Wade rakes in the column inches.) Today is the anniversary of Griswold. It's 42 years old today, a reproductive lifetime (and one that saw nearly all the social barriers for women fade away). Griswold is, no doubt, one of the most important Supreme Court decisions ever rendered.

Even the religious right agrees with this, though for its own confused reasons. If you listen to the apocalyptic rhetoric of the religious right, you'll learn that contraception is the root of all of society's ills, from the imagined breakdown of the family to an undocumented surge in crimes against children. It's a cornerstone of right-wing scolding and accusing – and wow are they scolders and accusers. And, no doubt, it's also the reason that not one pro-life group in the U.S. supports the use of contraception even though it's, ahem, the only proven way to prevent abortion.

Sadly, most Americans seem afflicted by some strain of this right wing prejudice. As much as 98 percent of Americans have used artificial birth control. Still, they don't think it's quite kosher. It's as if they too have felt the scolding and don't feel good about themselves for using birth control, regardless that much of their lives have been designed by family planning. The public appears to suspect (along with the right wing) that the pro-choice, birth control movement is somehow protecting (and even promoting) vice. No one realizes that the opposite is true or that groups like Planned Parenthood are the real pro-family values groups. There has never been a greater oversight. Here's why.

The religious right is right in this: Birth control is the source of seismic change. Family planning has led to a transformation of our society so head-spinningly rapid we've only recently had the occasion to take stock. For example, the past century has actually witnessed a steep decline in extramarital affairs as a result, it would seem, of the very changes that drive the pro-lifers wild: the more lengthy and thoughtful trying-out of marriage partners in combination with greater candor about sexual desires within marriage. Studies conducted in 1948 and 1953 found that 26 percent of women and a whopping 50 percent of men had an extramarital sexual experience. But today, in our sex and sin-happy culture, the number of married people who have had an extramarital affair has plummeted to six percent of women and 10 percent of men, according to (conservative) Ben Wattenberg in his book The First Measured Century. Preaching about faithfulness didn't lead to this family value upgrade. Rather, the uptick in fidelity today is the result of a society that accepts our sexual urges as natural, and couples can look within marriage for fulfillment of desires, even those once branded indecent. (It is also this belief system which supports gay marriage and the children that result from it. To us, family is so important that we believe everyone has a right to make one.)

Another truth is that when the birth control revolution got under way, women waited to marry and start a family. In 1970, the average age of a new mother was 21 years old. By 2000, the average age was 28. Harvard researchers recently reported that legalization of contraception is directly linked to the spike in the number of women becoming more highly educated and entering "career" professions. In 1970, five percent of all lawyers and judges were women; today they are six times that. In 1970, one in ten physicians was female; today it's one in three. Similar patterns are true for women architects, dentists, veterinarians, economists, and women in most of the engineering fields. No doubt, these advancements were set in motion by the birth control movement. It also is responsible for happier marriages, wealthier families and more involved fathers. More on that on Friday.