Today was supposed to be about celebrating women's empowerment. After all, today is the 85th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Consitution, which gave women the right to vote. More on that later.

Instead of celebrating today, we have plenty to be outraged about. The FDA has yet again postponed approval of emergency contraception for sale over the counter:

The morning-after pill is a high dose of regular birth control that, taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent.

It was Barr’s latest disappointment in the two-year battle to sell Plan B without a prescription. Contraceptive advocates and doctors groups say easier access could halve the nation’s 3 million annual unintended pregnancies. FDA’s scientists say the pills are safe, used by more than 2.4 million Americans and millions more women abroad with few side effects.

The agency’s independent scientific advisers overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales for everybody, not just adults, in December 2003.

But the most appalling part of this saga is this:

Friday, FDA essentially boiled the issue down to regulatory precedent: Selling the same dose of a drug by prescription and without at the same time and for the same medical use has never been done. The FDA will allow 60 days of public comment on how to take such a step and enforce an age limit, but Crawford would not say how soon the agency could evaluate those comments and rule.

That's right, the Bush administration is setting a precedent by opening up what should be a scientific, medical decision to public comment. This has never been done before. It's blatantly discriminatory to expect certain groups of people to get a prescription for the same medication that other groups of people can obtain over the counter. There is no medical or ethical justification for that. Parental notification is a red herring for maintaining control over girls' bodies instead of letting them make those decisions for themselves.

Bottom line: this drug has been determined 100% safe for adolescent and adult use. The FDA panel on women's health overwhelmingly approved over the counter sale. This is nothing but cynical posturing by a political entity that is afraid of women deciding for themselves what they do with their own bodies.

Disgusting.