Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 U.S. 809 (1975),[1] was a United States Supreme Court decision that established First Amendment protection for commercial speech.

[2] The ruling is an important precedent on challenges to government regulation of advertising, determining that such publications qualify as speech under the First Amendment.

In 1960, Virginia passed a statute, which in turn was an updated version of a law from 1878, that charged anyone advertising a service that "encourage[s] or prompt[s] the procuring of abortion or miscarriage" with a misdemeanor.

[2] Bigelow, now represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, appealed the ruling to the United States Supreme Court in 1972.

[1] Meanwhile, in the wake of the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, the court noted that the Virginia statute attempted to outlaw political speech on an issue (abortion) of clear public interest, while that procedure had since been declared a constitutional right in its own regard.