Political Strategies for Mechanistic Evidence: Wedging and Buttressing Access to Contraception and Abortion Pills

Abstract

This paper analyzes two interrelated strategies for using mechanistic evidence as a political instrument of social power, the Wedge and the Buttress. I compare two policy skirmishes over contraception and abortion pills. First, Pro-Life critics of emergency contraception aimed to undermine the switch to over-the-counter access. They drove a Wedge into the proposed mechanism, stalling policy change by raising politically motivated doubts. Second, Pro-Choice advocates of medication abortion tried counteracting mail-order restrictions. They Buttressed with new evidence to preempt their opponents before the COVID-19 pandemic. I explain the interplay between these strategies, their political motivations, and their relative empirical character.