Abstract
Over the last century, US policymakers have implemented laws, policies, and programs, such as abstinence-only sex education programs, that are specifically aimed at preserving the sexual purity of teenage girls while maintaining parental authority over them. The most recent case is the policy of restricting teen girls’ access to emergency contraception, which is now available over-the-counter (i.e., without a prescription) to women over the age of 18. Using the case of emergency contraception as an example, the author discusses how contemporary reproductive health policy in the USA is not only influenced by this history of governmental regulation but also by the ingrained cultural fears and anxieties about teenage sexuality and reproduction that motivate these actions. The author shows how policy narrative analysis in particular was a useful tool in revealing assumptions driving the policy to restrict teen girls’ access to emergency contraception, and how it allowed her to predict that teen girls would be placed at the center of debate when many of her reproductive health colleagues mistakenly assumed that emergency contraception would be granted over-the-counter status without controversy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Commonly known as the “morning-after pill,” emergency contraception is a regimen consisting of one or two pills that, when taken within 72 to 120 h of unprotected sex, prevents pregnancy from occurring by inhibiting a fertilized egg from implanting itself inside the uterine wall. A month’s worth of some brands of regular birth control pills and some IUDs can also be used as forms of emergency contraception. In 1998, Preven, which was produced by Gynetics, was the first dedicated emergency contraceptive kit to be approved by the FDA; Plan B was the second in 1999. Preven is no longer sold in the USA. Two other emergency contraceptive products have been approved by the FDA since 2006: Next Step (a generic drug product) and Ella, which are marketed by Watson Pharma and HRA Pharma, respectively.
Throughout this paper, I use the following terms to identify different advocacy groups and positions: “conservative,” “pro-life,” “anti-abortion,” “liberal,” and “pro-choice.” These modifiers are not meant to be value judgments about the particular positions taken by these groups. Instead, they are reflective of the terms that these advocates use to describe themselves.
References
Baer, J. (Ed.). (2002). Historical and multicultural encyclopedia of women’s reproductive rights in the United States. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Banerjee, N. (2008). “Dancing the night away, with a higher purpose.” New York Times, May 18. Available at: www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/US/19purity.html. Accessed 15 August 2008
Baumgartner, J. (2007). “Would you pledge your virginity to your father?” Glamour, February 7. Available at: www.glamour.com/news/articles/2007/01/purityballs07feb. Accessed 15 August 2008
Bruner, J. (2002). Making stories: law, literature, life. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP). (2001). “Statement of Opposition: Hart Amendment to Labor-HHS Appropriations HR 306.” Position paper, May 14.
Corbett, E. P. J., & Connors, R. J. (1999). Classical rhetoric for the modern student (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (1998). A narrative approach to organizational studies. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (2004). Narratives in social science research. London: Sage Publications.
Ehrlich, S. J. (2006). From age of consent laws to the “silver ring thing”: the regulation of adolescent female sexuality. Health Matrix: Journal of Law Medicine, 16(1), 151–181.
Feldman, M. S., & Skoldberg, K. (2002). Stories and the rhetoric of contrariety: subtexts of organizing (change). Culture and Organization, 8(4), 275–292.
Feldman, M. S., Skoldberg, K., Brown, R. N., & Horner, D. (2004). Making sense of stories: A rhetorical approach to narrative analysis. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 14(2), 147–170.
Finer, L.B., & Zolna M.R. (2011). “Unintended pregnancy in the United States: incidence and disparities, 2006.” Contraception, doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2011.07.013.
Foucault, M. (1990). In Hurley Robert (Ed.), The history of sexuality, volume 1: an introduction (1978). New York: Vintage Books.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative methods. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
Guttmacher Institute. (2006). “US teenage pregnancy statistics national and state trends and trends by race and ethnicity.” New York, NY: The Guttmacher Institute
Guttmacher Institute. (2007). “An overview of abortion laws.” State Policies in Brief. New York, NY: The Guttmacher Institute
Guttmacher Institute. (2008). “Sex and STI/HIV education.” State Policies in Brief. New York, NY: The Guttmacher Institute
Guttmacher Institute. (2010). “Facts on American teens’ sexual and reproductive health.” State Policies in Brief. New York, NY: The Guttmacher Institute
Hilgartner, S., & Bosk, C. L. (1988). The rise and fall of social problems: a public arenas model. The American Journal of Sociology, 94(1), 53–78.
Hsieh, H., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288.
Irvine, J. M. (2008). Transient feelings: sex panics and the politics of emotions. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 14(1), 1–40.
Kaiser Family Foundation (2004). “FDA rejects over-the-counter status for emergency contraceptive Plan B.” Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, May 7. Available at: www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports. Accessed 7 May 2004
Luker, K. (1984). Abortion and the politics of motherhood. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Luker, K. (1997). Dubious conceptions: the politics of teenage pregnancy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
McBride-Stetson, D. (2004). Women’s rights in the USA: policy debates and gender roles (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. (2002). Not just another single issue: teen pregnancy prevention’s link to other critical social issues. Washington, DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. (2003). Maximize the potential of emergency contraception to reduce unintended pregnancy and abortion: Switch Plan B ® from RX to OTC (testimony to FDA). Washington, DC: National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.
Neff, D. (1997).“Mourning the morning-after pill.” Christianity Today, April 7
Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Odem, M. E. (1995). Delinquent daughters: protecting and policing adolescent female sexuality in the United States, 1885–1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.
Price, K. (2003). “A tale of two pills: making political sense of new reproductive technologies through policy stories.” Dissertation, University of Michigan.
Price, K. (2005). The discursive politics of reproductive health. Anthropology News, 46(3), 13.
Price, K. (2010). What is reproductive justice? How women of color are redefining the prochoice paradigm. Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, 10(2), 42–65.
Roberts, D. (1997). Killing the black body: race, reproduction, and the meaning of liberty. New York: Pantheon Books.
Roe, E. (1994). Narrative policy analysis: theory and practice. Durham: Duke University Press.
Saletan, W. (2004). Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Schneider, A., & Ingram, H. (1993). Social construction of target populations: implications for politics and policy. American Political Science Review, 87(2), 334–347.
Schram, S. F., & Neisser, P. T. (1997). Tales of the state: narrative in contemporary U.S. policies and public policy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Smith, A. (2005). Conquest: sexual violence and American Indian genocide. Cambridge: South End Press.
Solinger, R. (2005). Pregnancy and power: a short history of reproductive politics in America. New York: New York University Press.
Stone, D. A. (1989). Causal stories and the formation of policy agendas. Political Science Quarterly, 104(2), 281–300.
Stone, D. A. (2002). Policy paradox: the art of political decision making (Revisedth ed.). New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Trussell, J., Ellertson, C., Stewart, F., Raymond, E. G., & Shochet, T. (2004). The role of emergency contraception. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 190, S30–S38.
U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2000). Public hearing on FDA regulation of over-the-counter drug products (pp. 68–69). Transcript, June 28–29, 2000.
US Food and Drug Administration. (2003). Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee (NDAC) in Joint Session with the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs (ACRHD). Transcript of Meeting held on Tuesday, December 16, 2003 in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
US Government Accountability Office (GAO). (2005). “Food and Drug Administration decision process to deny initial application for over-the-counter marketing the emergency contraceptive drug plan B was unusual: report to congressional requestors.”
US House of Representatives. (2001). Representative Melissa Hart (R-PA) introducing an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act of 2001, HR3061, 107th Congress, 1st session, 2001, Congressional Record, October 11, pp. H6568–H6569
Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Yanow, D. (2000). Conducting interpretive policy analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Price, K. The Quest for Purity: The Role of Policy Narratives in Determining Teen Girls’ Access to Emergency Contraception in the USA. Sex Res Soc Policy 8, 282–293 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-011-0068-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-011-0068-8