Women's organizations and others in the family planning field accused Madonna of promoting teenage pregnancy, while groups opposed to abortion saw the song as having a positive pro-life message.

The single's performance at the Who's That Girl World Tour (1987) caused Madonna's first conflict with the Vatican, as she dedicated it to Pope John Paul II, who urged Italian fans to boycott her concerts.

[2] Based on teen gossip he would hear outside his recording studio, which had a large front window that was used as mirror by schoolgirls from the Los Angeles' North Hollywood High School, Elliot described the track as a "love song, maybe framed a little bit differently [...] about a young girl who found herself at a crossroads in life and didn’t know where to turn".

[6] Ostin had discovered "Like a Virgin", and asked Elliot if he could play "Papa Don't Preach" to Madonna, who at the time was working on True Blue, her third studio album, alongside Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray.

[9] Madonna's contribution was limited to a few altered and added-on lyrics, making "Papa Don't Preach" the only song on the album that she did not have a strong hand in writing; nonetheless, she managed to get a songwriting credit.

[6] Personnel working on the song included Bray on keyboards and percussions, alongside Fred Zarr and Jonathan Moffett; David Williams, Bruce Gaitsch and John Putnam played guitars, while background vocals were provided by Siedah Garrett and Edie Lehmann.

[29][30] On his review of True Blue, Rolling Stone's Davitt Sigerson wrote that, "only the magnificent 'Papa Don’t Preach' has the high-profile hook to match 'Like a Virgin', 'Dress You Up' and 'Material Girl'", and compared it to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (1983).

[34] Adam Sexton, author of Desperately Seeking Madonna: In Search of the Meaning of the World's Most Famous Woman, named it True Blue's "boldest" track, comparing it to "Bodies" (1977) by Sex Pistols, and Graham Parker's "You Can't Be Too Strong" (1979).

[18] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani said it was "undeniably more mature" than Madonna's previous works, further adding that, with songs like "Papa Don’t Preach", "[she] made the transition from pop tart to consummate artist, joining the ranks of the decade's icons like Michael Jackson and Prince.

[39] Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, expressed that the "most obvious growth is in the control and character in Madonna's singing", and considered the lyrics to be "tailor-made for video.

[16] This sentiment was echoed by The Arizona Republic's Ed Masley, who perceived "more soul than was expected at the time" in Madonna's vocals, and referred to the song as a "richly orchestrated dance track".

[51] "Papa Don't Preach" also came in at number 21 on Slant Magazine's ranking, where Paul Schrodt wrote: "[It] may well be the only song about choosing not to have an abortion that also feels rebellious, even dangerous".

[55] Finally, Nayer Missim from PinkNews named it the third best song of the singer's discography: "A rare example of Madonna-as-storyteller [...] Unfairly dismissed (or claimed) as a pro-life anthem, its lyrics are much more personal, open and interesting than that".

[58] This made her the fourth female artist in the rock era to earn this amount of consecutive top-ten singles, behind only Brenda Lee, Aretha Franklin and Donna Summer.

[82] Having just done the "glamorous and stylized" videos for "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin", for "Papa Don't Preach", Madonna wanted to "tap into a working-class environment", and do something "a bit more grounded and 'drama'", thus Foley suggested filming on Staten Island.

[91] Author David James noted that Madonna wanted to "make sure the world could see she'd been working out heavily, [and] no longer was a streetwise 'tramp'", thus additional footage of her singing was shot.

[100][101][102] Mason concluded that, "in addition to igniting controversy over freedom of choice and teen pregnancy, Madonna continued to revolutionize the music video form by expanding its capacity for narrative".

[82][27] Journalist Ellen Goodman referred to the video as a "commercial for teen-age pregnancy", and chastised Madonna for "glamorizing" said subject; "[her] boyfriend is a hunky dreamboat with a conscience and moral compass, while her father is loving, supportive and even-tempered".

[114] Susanne Hamscha, one of the authors of The Fiction of America: Performance and the Cultural Imaginary in Literature and Film, argued that the clip oscillates between liberal and conservative ideology, private and public, feminism and patriarchy, and "female independence and the need for paternal approval".

[119] Feminist lawyer Gloria Allred, spokeswoman of the National Organization for Women (NOW), angrily called for the singer to make a public statement or another record supporting the track's opposite point of view.

[120] Alfred Moran, executive director of New York City's Planned Parenthood, went as far as to send out a "critical demo" to radio and TV stations, advising them to "think carefully" before playing the song or airing the video.

[2] Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore, co-founder of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), and who two years earlier had condemned Madonna's single "Dress You Up", deemed "Papa Don't Preach" an "important song, and a good one, which discusses, with urgency, a real predicament which thousands of unwed teenagers face in our country [...] It also speaks to the fact that there's got to be more support and more communication in familiies about this problem".

[2][118] In this vein, Joyce Millman wrote in the Boston Phoenix: "['Papa Don't Preach'] is Madonna's finest three minutes, not merely because it addresses teen pregnancy, but because it suggests that a portion of the blame rests on parents' reluctance to discuss, not lecture, about sex".

[117][122] Georges-Claude Guilbert found it hard to believe that, "[Madonna] did not know that she was going to cause a huge controversy [...] With such a song and video, she was throwing in America's face the image of a country ravaged by the abortion debate, which is far from being resolved".

[124] The screen in the background projected images of Pope John Paul II, then-president of the United States Ronald Reagan, the White House, and the phrase "Safe sex".

[127][128] On the Blond Ambition World Tour, "Papa Don't Preach" was given a Catholic theme: The stage was set up to resemble a candlelit cathedral, while Madonna wore black vestments.

[140] On the Madame X Tour, Madonna sang the first verse and chorus of "Papa Don't Preach" against a backdrop of Susanna and the Elders by Artemisia Gentileschi, following an "impassioned tirade about abortion".

[145][146] In the sequence, Madonna simulates being masturbated by a dancer wearing the Jean-Paul Gaultier-designed corset from Blond Ambition, and recreates "Papa Don't Preach"'s choreography from that tour.

[157][153] Critical reviews were generally mixed: For Billboard, Chuck Arnold considered it an "aggressive post-punk anthem" that's "certainly good for three minutes of steering-wheel banging on the way to the market" and "could just make Ozzy one proud daddy".

[175] Ten years later, Palestinian artist and activist Shahd Abusalama released "Madonna Don't Go", a parody that addressed the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and urged the singer to pull out of performing at the Eurovision Song Contest.