When many people think of legal decisions involving reproductive rights, the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade is the first - or maybe even the only - case that comes to mind. In reality, the United States Supreme Court has rendered many important decisions involving the reproductive rights of both men and women, many of which we take for granted. Following is a summary of ten of the most noteworthy decisions.

1. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535 (1942). In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that requiring a prisoner to undergo sterilization violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Justice Douglas explained that such conduct treads on one of the basic civil rights of man, and that procreation is fundamental to the very existence and survival of the human race.

2. Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965). In this case, the Supreme Court held that the right to privacy, which flows from the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution), includes the right of married persons to use contraceptives.

3. Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438(1972). Expanding on the rights guaranteed by the Griswold case, the Supreme Court held that a statute that allowed giving contraceptives to married adults but prohibited the same conduct with respect to unmarried adults violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. If the right of privacy means anything, explained the Court, it encompasses the right of all individuals, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether or not to conceive a child.

4. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). Roe v. Wade is clearly a landmark decision. In that case, the Court established that the right to an abortion is encompassed within the right to privacy, any restrictions on a woman's right to obtain an abortion must be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest, the state's interest in the life of a non-viable fetus is not compelling, some abortions must be allowed even after viability in order to protect a woman's health or life, and a fetus is not a person under the Fourteenth Amendment.

5. Planned Parenthood v. Danforth, 428 U.S. 52 (1976). In Danforth, the Court invalidated a requirement that a married woman obtain her husband's consent before having an abortion, as well as a statute requiring minors to obtain the written consent of one parent before having an abortion.

6. Carey v. Population Services International, 431 U.S. 678 (1977). The Supreme Court held in this case that a New York statute making it a crime to sell or distribute contraceptives to minors under sixteen was invalid, thus further expanding the rights guaranteed by Griswold and Eisenstadt.

7. City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, 462 U.S. 416 (1983). In this case, the Court invalidated portions of a city ordinance that required physicians to give their patients anti-abortion information, a twenty-four-hour waiting period after giving such information, that all second- and third-trimester abortions be performed in a hospital, and parental consent for minors seeking abortions. Portions of this decision were later overruled, however, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992).

8. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 (1989). In Webster, the Supreme Court upheld parts of a Missouri statute that prohibited the use of public facilities and personnel to perform abortions. Significantly, the Webster decision was the first time in the sixteen years since Roe v. Wade that only a minority of the Justices on the Court voted to reaffirm that decision.

9. Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, 497 U.S. 502 (1990). In a decision that appears at first glance to conflict with others rendered by the Court, the Justices decided that a statute that required a minor to obtain parental consent before having an abortion was valid. The difference between this case and others in which such statutes were struck down is that here the state law included a procedure to bypass the parental consent requirement.

10. Madsen v. Women's Health Center, 512 U.S. 753 (1994). The Supreme Court upheld a Florida court ruling that required a thirty-six-foot buffer zone outside the entrance to a reproductive health clinic and prohibited anti-choice protesters from making noise that could be heard by patients inside the clinic during hours when surgical procedures were being performed.