The quest for purity: the role of policy narratives in determining teen girls’ access to emergency contraception in the usa

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.