Some Republican women wish men would just shut up

By Patricia Zengerle | Reuters – 31 mins ago

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TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Republican women attending the national convention this week are fed up with talk that their party is waging a "war on women," and some say it doesn't help that a few Republican men keep talking about abortion, rape and contraception.
 

"Why are men discussing this? That would be my question," asked Mary Anne Carter, policy director at YG Network, a conservative-leaning non-profit group running the "Woman Up!" pavilion at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

"At the end of the day, this election is about the economy."

Republican hopes that the convention would focus on jobs and the economy - and their presidential candidate, Mitt Romney - were complicated last week when U.S. Representative Todd Akin, a Senate candidate from Missouri, said women's bodies protect them from becoming pregnant in case of "legitimate rape," eliminating the need for legal abortions for victims.
 

"One remark like that can knock everything down.... It's the rhetoric that upsets people," Carter said.
Democrats seized on Akin's comments to contend that his entire party is impossibly hostile to women's interests.

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