Haley: GOP Has No 'War on Women'

Despite Democratic efforts to paint the Republican Party as anti-women, the GOP has no “war on women,” as Democrats charge, says South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The accusations arose after public debate over contraception issues. The White House proposed requiring religious institutions to provide their workers contraception services free of charge before backing down.

“This is a president that is trying to create distractions,” Haley, a frequent surrogate for likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, said on Fox News Tuesday morning, according to TPM. “There is no war on women. Women are doing well.”

Several other Republican luminaries have made the same point in recent days. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus termed the “war on women” a “fiction” that has about as much factual basis as the Republican “war on caterpillars.”

“Talk about a manufactured issue,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Louisville, Ky., radio station WHAS Monday. “There is no issue.” He pointed as proof to GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska. “[They] would be the first to say, ‘We don’t see any evidence of this,’” McConnell said.