In the summer of 1986 an American singer known monomymously as Madonna released a song titled “Papa Don’t Preach” on her third studio album True Blue. The album was released nearly thirteen years after the final verdict of Roe v. Wade established reproductive rights as liberties in line with those granted by the Fourteenth Amendment. The prominence of the song coincided with the presence of Music Television or MTV for short, a public channel whose broadcasts influenced the youth popular culture of the time[5]. The music video would be broadcast for teens to listen to and watch spreading awareness of the song. The song was a commercial success reaching Billboard’s hot one hundred [2]. Despite its popularity, the song has been controversial since its release for its portrayal of teenage pregnancy and female promiscuity. The popularity of the artist and song has kept it in circulation through today’s society, having been referenced to through various other pop culture outlets as well as its adoption as an anti-abortion proclamation.
After its original release, the song was criticized for the lyrics as they were thought to glamorize and promote teen pregnancy. The song chronicles a teenage daughter’s discussion with her father in which she is confessing to him about her pregnancy. The song places Madonna as the pregnant teen and the listener as ‘Papa’. Conservative groups believed the song pushed teenagers to accept the roles of parenthood despite their unpreparedness. It was argued that neglecting to acknowledge the struggles and dangers of young parenthood overlooked the harm it does to both the child and the young parent. Supporters of abortion found it to be problematic because it pushed for teenagers to accept pregnancy neglecting to acknowledge the loosening of sanctions that once made access to safe abortions improbable. During this time laws around the country were being rewritten to modify restrictions and bans on abortion making it a safer option to terminate a pregnancy. These groups thought it did a disservice to young girls by not informing them that there were other options available to them regarding pregnancy.
The lyrics of the song have been broken down and continuously reconstructed in the public eye. It wasn’t until a few years after the initial release that supporters of the pro-life movement saw it as an opportunity to promote their anti-abortion stance. Madonna unintentionally created an anti-abortion song based on one lyric that is repeated three times throughout the entirety of the song “I made up my mind, I’m keeping my baby”[1]. The song was portrayed as having an anti-abortion view, a fact that was then mobilized to influence younger girls, like the girl in the video, to decide for themselves to keep their child and not be pushed into making a decision they didn’t want. The use of the song was similar to that of advertisements in which celebrities sponsor products. In 2009 Madonna issued a statement apologizing for the misinterpretation of the song as being anti-abortion and officially announced that her intention for the song was not to push for anti-abortion, rather it was to embrace womanhood and fight patriarchy [5]. In her article, The Sonic Politics of the US Abortion Wars, Rebecca Lentjes discusses how protestors have weaponized music for their arguments often lining the parking lots of abortion clinics to cause disturbances to the women attempting to get treated. “Papa Don’t Preach” was unique because it was a well-known song, it was a piece of popular culture as opposed to the traditional Christian music that has since become dominant since Madonna’s statement.
Madonna’s version of the song was the profession of a teenager’s ascension into womanhood. The song found the daughter deciding for herself to keep her baby and not obey her father. The intention of the song was to portray challenging male authorities and patriarchy. Feminists then proceeded to take up the mantle and claim Papa Don’t Preach as a feminist song. The fact that the teen chooses to keep the baby is an expression of her rights, the same rights granted to women that chose to have an abortion through the ruling of Roe v. Wade. The daughter’s disobedience to her father echoed female disillusion with the patriarchy governing women’s bodies. The video and the lyrics were broadcasts of reclaiming womanhood that challenge the oppression and stigmatization of unmarried pregnant women and teens, an issue that remains prevalent today.The song remains in circulation today and has become heavily ingrained in the topic of abortion. Recently a television series named Grey’s Anatomy aired an episode titled “Papa Don’t Preach”. In the episode the main character discovers she is expecting, upon discussion with a female doctor, she learns about a take-home abortion pill and ultimately decides to take the doctor’s offer. “Papa Don’t Preach” established a platform for the media to portray abortion in a public light. The song opened a doorway for public awareness of social issues by reaching into private life through the consumption of popular culture. Through her various concerts, Madonna continued to perform her song further expanding on the theme of spreading social issues into private life.
Ciccone, Madonna. Papa Don’t Preach. YouTube, YouTube, 30 June 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G333Is7VPOg. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.
Victoria Rodriguez
Works Cited:
[1] Ciccone, M.(2011, June 30) Papa Don’t Preach. YouTube, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G333Is7VPOg. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.
[2] Dullea, G. (1986, September 18). Madonna’s New Beat Is A Hit, But Song’s Message Rankles. The New York Times.https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/18/nyregion/madonna-s-new-beat-is-a-hit-but-song-s-message-rankles.html
[3] Lentjes, R. (2021). The Sonic Politics of the US Abortion Wars. American Music 39(3), 301-324.
https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/837101.
[4] Prieto‐Arranz, J. I. (2012). The semiotics of performance and success in Madonna. The Journal of popular culture, 45(1), 173-196.
[5] Scaggs, A. (2009, October 29). Madonna Looks Back: The Rolling Stone Interview. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/madonna-looks-back-the-rolling-stone-interview-197575/
[6] Sisson, G. (2021). Prime-time abortion on Grey’s Anatomy: What do US viewers learn from fictional portrayals of abortion on television. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 53(1–2), 13–22.
https://doi.org/10.1363/psrh.12183
[7] Soto, A. (2017, July 21). 1986: Papa Don’t Preach by Madonna. PBS North Carolina; PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/songs-of-the-summer-1986/
I think a common misconception on both sides of the abortion debate is the definition of pro-choice. In my personal opinion, pro-choice does not equal pro-abortion. However, one must support legal and accessible abortions to be pro-choice. Pro-choice is giving women the opportunity to choose between a plethora of options surrounding childbirth and bodily autonomy such as keeping the baby, looking into adoption, or abortion.
If Conservative groups were originally upset with the song for, “pushing teenagers to accept the roles of parenthood despite their unpreparedness” then these groups should not also fight against abortion as it would remove yet another choice for these young mothers. Similarly, pro-choice advocates should not shun women who use their choice and bodily autonomy to keep their child and follow through with childbirth.
Finally, the line, “I made up my mind, I’m keeping my baby” only helps solidify my point from earlier. Keeping the baby does not equate to being pro-life. Someone that is pro-choice should support and not shun women that choose to keep their baby, and pro-life individuals should understand that someone can support a woman’s right to abortion while also understanding abortion is not the best option for themselves.
I think it is extremely interesting how a song can be miscontrued and used for so many different uses based on public interpretation. When madonna published it as a song about embracing womanhood, then conservatives used it to promote their anti-abbortion cause, for the song to then be used in the feminist movement shows the versitlity of these lyrics. It really demonstrates how public eye and conception can play sich a big role.
I think this also ties in to how important language is in political debates like this one. The langauge of “I made up my mind, I’m keeping my baby” can be miscontrued in so many ways to support different causes. Similar to how the two sides of the abortion debate today are pro-life and pro-choice. Everyone wants the right to life and the freedom to make choices but the way it is applied to the different causes provides and entirely different understanding of the issue.
When listening to this song, I never realized how intertwined the lyrics were with both sides of the abortion debate. Believing that “Papa Don’t Preach” has pro-life undertones just because of the line “I’m keeping my baby” is, in my opinion, a weak analysis of the song and of Madonna’s brand. When I think of Madonna, I think of female empowerment, which is clearly what she intended the song to reflect. Also, just because a woman was considering an abortion and ultimately ended up keeping the child, that does not indicate a pro-life stance. If anything, it reflexes the woman’s right to choose to have a baby, which is a reflection of Roe v Wade.
This was a really interesting article and take! I never knew that her song was used for anti-abortion protests. However, I am not sure that it was a reasonable assumption for people to make that it had an anti-abortion sentiment; to me it seems like a bit of a reach. If I saw and listened to the song for the first time, I would have thought it was about the struggles of teen pregnancy and choosing whether or not to have the baby. She ended up choosing to keep the baby but that doesn’t mean it is anti-abortion in any means. She made a choice about her own body, and nothing said anything shameful or bad about getting an abortion. I am not sure which side of the debate first interpreted it that way, but either way it seems like a stretch for both pro-life and pro-choice people.
I found it fascinating how one song can have so many interpretations in history. I’ve hear d of her song before and when I first heard it, I was thinking that it was also her fighting against the patriarchy too. However, the fact that some people think it differently shows how different perspectives and collective memory can make it so for a certain group. How the collective memory for a certain group gives way to a certain interpretation.