Anti-abortion moms want birth control pills available for their daughters because they believe it is "the best way to avoid abortion," according to former Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, citing polling done when he was party boss.
Interviewed on pollster Scott Rasmussen's weekend show "What America Thinks," Dean revealed polling done in the 2008 presidential race between President Obama and Sen. John McCain that showed women, especially conservatives, running from McCain because of the GOP's social platform.
He said that the results proved themselves again in the 2012 elections when women voted Democratic, in part because they were worried about losing access to birth control, especially women who worked for religious institutions.
"The Republicans have gone so far to the right that they scare the daylights out of most reasonable people," he told Rasmussen. "Women are scared to death of the Republicans because (Republicans believe) insurance companies shouldn't pay for birth control pills."
Dean cited 2008 polling that even anti-abortion moms wanted birth control available for their children, and he dismissed abstinence education as outdated.
"These pro-life women, they didn't want to vote for a Democrat but they all had teenage daughters and they know that the best way to avoid abortion if you are pro-life is to make sure that your kids are into birth control pills if they need to be. These are practical people. Abstinence-only education is just a concotion of men who don't know anything of how sex works, or don't want to know anything, it's a fact," he said.
