Washington Post account (better)
Congress' non-partisan investigative arm, The General Accountability Office, found numerous irregularities and substantial evidence of political interference in the FDA review process for making Plan B an over the countere drugs. One finding is that the FDA considered factors for Plan B that have not been considered in any other over the counter decision for the past ten years.
The Washington Post account states:
Senior Food and Drug Administration officials were told that the application to sell the "morning-after pill" without prescription was going to be rejected before the staff completed its scientific review and months before the decision was made public, government investigators reported yesterday
. . the GAO was unable to fully assess McClellan's role because he would not speak with investigators and because the agency provided no documents reflecting his communications with other officials. The FDA told the investigators that e-mails to and from McClellan had been deleted and that written memos were routinely destroyed.
Raising the possibility that this practice was a violation of federal record-keeping law, the congressmen wrote that "as the Plan B decision makes clear, retaining the documents of the agency head is essential for the transparent operation of government."
Basically, the sex-negative portion of our population prevailed upon the Bush Administration and HHS Secretary Leavitt to replace sound science on Plan B with ideological positions aimed at stopping people from being responsible with their sexuality. They would prefer instead if sex was only for procreation and not as an enjoyable act for those who don't share their values.
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