[Steven Galson] said that after consulting with his staff and the FDA commissioner's office, he concluded that the agency did not have enough scientific information on whether easier access to emergency contraception would increase the rates of sexual activity -- particularly unprotected intercourse -- and sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls.

Women's rights advocates and reproductive health groups continued Friday to condemn the decision, which the FDA first communicated to Barr Laboratories, maker of the emergency contraceptive Plan B, late Thursday. Dr. Vivian M. Dickerson of UC Irvine, the newly installed president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, called the agency's action "morally repugnant" and said it ignored more than 15,000 pages of clinical data from some 40 scientific studies.

Those who support making Plan B available without a prescription continued to insist Friday that the White House was behind the FDA's decision. Elizabeth A. Cavendish, interim president of NARAL Pro- Choice America, said her group was sending e-mail alerts to about 400,000 activists encouraging them to send "a prescription to President [Bush] to tell him to take a dose of reality. American women are pro-family planning."