New Pew poll says Obama advantage among women voters over GOP is “striking”

After President Obama signed off on a Health and Human Services ruling that said that under his health care plan, Catholic institutions — including charities, hospitals and schools — would be required by law to provide and pay for insurance coverage that included contraception, some political analysts said the issue could blow up and seriously hurt his chances with Catholic voters this fall.

In the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan wrote that the issue could cost Obama the election.

The trajectory of the story changed after Rush Limbaugh crudely trashed a witness that Democrats were going to call up for a hearing on contraception, and well, you know the rest.

Since that time liberals have bashed the GOP for waging a "war on women' (throwing in Rick Santorum's views on the issue). Republicans have said it's actually Obama's "war on religion."

But if you go by recent polls, including one just out by the Pew Research Center, the issue is killing Republicans.

This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2012.