Planned Parenthood of North Texas honored me with a nice award last week. But when it came time for me to make a few remarks, I had to confess to feeling ashamed.

I don't think that's exactly the reaction they were looking for.

The award recognized a column I wrote last year about the federal government's impasse over emergency contraception.

But I had to confess that I felt ashamed to win an award for merely stating the obvious.

Everyone laughed in a nice, supportive – and maybe relieved – way. But that didn't make it any less true.

Imagine – winning an award for saying doctors, not politicians, ought to make medical decisions.

Who could disagree with that?

And yet that's exactly the situation we've got in this country over the availability of emergency contraceptives.

The federal government's own review panel of doctors and scientists supports selling the so-called morning-after pill over the counter. The birth-control pills are clearly safe and effective. Taken soon after unprotected sex or when routine contraception fails, they still prevent 85 percent of pregnancies.

But political heat from the most fervent social conservatives has stymied the Food and Drug Administration. It refuses to approve emergency contraceptives for over-the-counter sales.

I had to confess that something else made me feel ashamed to receive that award last week.

I said it also feels a little shameful for a fellow to win an award for just doing his job – especially when others have quit good jobs over this deplorable situation.

When the FDA refused again last year to approve the contraceptives, Dr. Susan Wood courageously resigned in protest. She had been director of the FDA's Office of Women's Health.

To state the obvious – again: She didn't want to work in a place where politicians, not doctors, make medical decisions.

At Planned Parenthood's awards luncheon last week, rabbi Nancy Kasten gave the invocation. Before her prayer, she said her favorite bumper sticker these days says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."

Amen, sister – if a Baptist can say that to a rabbi. On this issue alone, a big dose of outrage is due.

Let's be clear. We're not talking here about abortion pills. That's something else. Some have tried to confuse the issue. But these are ordinary birth-control pills, working just as they do when taken ordinarily.

Dr. Wood stressed that point in a recent talk. "The only connection emergency contraception has to abortion is it prevents the need for one," she said. "It's just like birth control."

We shouldn't even be discussing this. This ought to be the slam-dunk decision of all time.

The two most important and relevant medical groups – the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – have issued statements calling on the FDA to quit stalling and make the contraceptives available over the counter.

"What this amounts to is a quintessential shell game, in which women are the losers," the OB-GYN doctors said in their statement.

The OB-GYN association estimates that wider awareness and availability of emergency contraceptives could cut unintended pregnancies and abortions in half.

In half! That's about 2 million pregnancies and 500,000 abortions a year.

Look, I respect that some people believe birth control is wrong. Some object to birth-control pills in particular. That's fine. They shouldn't use them.

But to restrict their availability to an entire nation? To possibly double the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions?

That ought to leave us all outraged – and a little ashamed.