What do Republican women want

A woman holds a sign expressing affection for Ann Romney during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. (Spencer Platt, Getty Images) Women's issues are an ongoing source of contention in the 2012 presidential election, in which the female vote in swing states like Colorado could turn the tide in either direction. But what do women really want? And which candidate would better serve their needs? While President Barack Obama attacks Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan on their ticket's hostility to women's rights, Republicans counter that women care more about the economy. Actually, we care about both. What women on both sides of the political fence agree on is that both candidates' economic and social policies intertwine in the ways they impact our lives, families and jobs. Women base their votes on their financial well-being, said Katy Atkinson, a Republican political analyst in Denver. "Everything they care about is affected by that." When it comes to social policies, women favor Obama, who leads Romney 53 percent to 39 percent among female voters in a recent Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll. The tilt toward Obama includes his pro-choice stance. Fifty-five percent of American women now say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, says the Pew Research Center, while 41 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases. In six battleground states, including Colorado, 66 percent of undecided females also had major doubts about Romney after learning he supports overturning Roe vs. Wade, according to Hart Research Associates. For an idea of how important women's votes are likely to be, consider this: In the 2008 presidential election, 53 percent of the overall votes came from women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. To win their votes, however, Obama will need to outline a clear vision for the next four years on how he'll strengthen the economy, Atkinson said. "Playing blame games won't cut it," she said. Obama will have a chance to broaden his case to women when the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday. When it comes to handling the economy, Romney has a slight lead over Obama, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Creating jobs is critical to helping women help themselves and their families. Interestingly, Obama carries the same lead on the issue of who has a better understanding of the economic problems people are facing, It may be an important difference to female voters. "Women are much more sensitive to a candidate being a moderate or an extremist," Atkinson said. If Romney wants to win women's votes, he'll need to avoid a Republican pitfall of sounding "harsh and mean," she added. If so, Romney's expansive pro-life policies — especially where they go beyond abortion rights to impact health care and family planning — may hurt him with the majority of women. On his website, Romney pledges to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Since federal funding can't pay for abortion services, the move would simply eliminate cancer screenings, breast exams, prenatal care and contraception at 800 family planning clinics, for the sake of ideology. For a double whammy, Romney would also eliminate federal funding for Title X family planning that helps about 5 million Americans receive contraception, cancer screenings and other non-abortion health care. In Colorado, Planned Parenthood receives no Title X money, so the cuts would remove some 57 family planning centers serving as alternative sources of health care. Here's where Romney's focus on the economy misses a crucial point: For women, reproductive health care is an economic issue. "Women understand that health care and the economy are inextricably intertwined," said Vicki Cowart, Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado president and CEO. Access to health care is a policy priority for women, reports the Kaiser Family Foundation, and encompasses their experiences as patients, mothers and caregivers. Women are more likely than men to report cost-related barriers to care. Beyond Planned Parenthood and Title X, more than 70 percent of family planning funds come from Medicaid, reports the Guttmacher Institute. Romney and Ryan would cut those funds, too, and create block grants to states. Women account for more than two-thirds of Medicaid participants over the age of 14, and would be disproportionately harmed by those cuts, according to the National Institute for Reproductive Health. Compounding the economic impact of defunding low-cost clinics, Romney also opposes insurance coverage of contraception — even though every $1 spent on family planning saves taxpayers nearly $4 on costs for unintended pregnancies, says the Guttmacher Institute. Women also benefit economically from the ability to space out pregnancies so they can invest in their educations and have stability in their jobs. Romney also pledged to repeal Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) on his first day in office with an executive order to provide "Obamacare waivers" to all 50 states. While opinions on the ACA vary, it undeniably provides specific benefits to women, who pay 68 percent more for out-of-pocket health care costs than men. The ACA addressed this gender discrimination by banning insurance companies from charging higher premiums for women based on gender, or treating pregnancy as a pre-existing condition starting in 2014. The ACA also mandates coverage of preventive services, including maternity care, mammograms, contraceptives, well-woman visits, domestic violence screening, and breastfeeding supports. Romney's health care plan would hand reform to the states instead, and eliminate free preventive services like mammograms, Romney campaign press secretary Andrea Saul told CNN last week. State control of health care reform would actually benefit Colorado, says state Rep. Cheri Gerou, Republican chair of the Joint Budget Committee. Because Colorado expanded Medicaid eligibility, enrollment is anticipated to hit 1 million in 2017, she says, and Medicaid spending will outpace K-12 education spending. Bulk grants would enable Colorado to decide for itself how to balance those needs. Will Ryan's more engaging personality help Romney sell his health care plan to women? Or will female voters reject Ryan's extreme positions on abortion? Ryan co-sponsored federal personhood legislation that would have banned abortions with no exceptions for rape, incest or to save a woman's life. As Ryan announced he'd defer to Romney's support for abortion exceptions, Republicans also adopted a party-wide platform at their convention last week supporting a human life amendment to the Constitution that would ban abortions with no exceptions. By the time the RNC began, more Americans were interested in the GOP platform (52 percent) than in Romney's acceptance speech (44 percent), the Pew Research Center reported. Beyond health care, women's abilities to benefit from economic changes made by either candidate are impacted by unequal pay, which also compounds the impact of Romney's proposed cuts. Women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, says the Center for American Progress. That money lost over a lifetime equals about $431,000, enough to feed a family of four for 37 years, or invest in a small business.