In Griswold v. Connecticut the Court supported women's rights to obtain birth control (and thus, retain reproductive autonomy) without marital consent.

In 1857 they were "married" by a Catholic priest, in a ceremony which consisted of a renewal of their marital consent previously declared privately to each other.

The judgment rejects the rule in Clarence as tainted by the then presumption of a wife's marital consent to sexual intercourse, although Clarence was still being applied after the criminalisation of rape within marriage.

In the 12th century, the Catholic Church drastically changed legal standards for marital consent by allowing daughters over 12 and sons over 14 to marry without their parents' approval, even if their marriage was made clandestinely.