A phalanx of political appointees in federal agencies is putting the nation in reverse gear when it comes to real science.
The most recent example is the subject of a report issued this week by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
The FDA ignored scientific recommendations of health professionals and instead pandered to cacophonous anti-abortion agitators by rejecting approval of over-the-counter sales of Plan B, a morning-after contraceptive for women.
Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the drug is a contraceptive, not an abortion drug, anti-abortionists consider it tantamount to abortion.
In a sweeping review of the FDA's 2004 decision, the GAO all but described the decision as pure politics.
The GAO called reasons for the decision—easy access to the pill would encourage risky sexual behavior by minor girls--"novel" and the involvement of top FDA political appointees "very, very rare."
The GAO also discovered that e-mails and correspondence of a former agency commissioner relating to the ban on Plan B had been destroyed—perhaps in violation of federal law.
Barr Laboratories had filed an application with the FDA requesting approval for over the counter sales of Plan B.
When the FDA rejected the application, the acting director of the FDA drug center instructed the company that it could receive approval if it sold the drug "behind the counter" without a prescription and made it available to women 16 and older. The drug company complied, and filed an application more than a year ago.
FDA political appointees now have Plan B stalled, even in its availability to adult women, and have failed to make a decision.
Meanwhile, women who want to prevent pregnancy, and avoid abortions, are being denied a proven contraceptive that must be taken with 72 hours to be effective.
The irony here is that the solution creates a problem. Anti-abortionists who've politically imposed their ideology will on the FDA to ban Plan B will cause women whose pregnancies might've been prevented by the pill to seek abortions.
