ABC's Kerley: 'Republicans Handed [Democrats] a Gift When They Started Talking About Contraception'

March 19th, 2012 2:14 AM

On ABC's World News on Saturday, host David Muir played a clip of an ad from the far left group MoveOn.org attacking Republicans on the issues of abortion and contraception, and asked correspondent David Kerley for his take on the ad.

Without noting that President Obama raised the issue of contraception by requiring some religious institutions to pay for contraceptives for their employees, or that ABC's very own George Stephanopoulos had bizarrely raised the issue even earlier in a Republican presidential debate, persisting to get an answer from Mitt Romney, Kerley blamed Republicans for "talking about contraception" as he asserted that the GOP had handed Democrats a "gift."

After playing the ad, host Muir wondered:

It's just one group's video, but is this a larger window into what Democrats are going to do? How big of a role will these issues affecting women play in the big picture moving forward?

Kerley responded:

A huge role. You know, independent women went very strongly for the President in '08. Republicans closed the gender gap in '10. The Democrats were going to go down this road anyway, and the Republicans handed them a gift when they started talking about contraception. You're going to see this all the way till November, as the Obama camp tries to bring independent women back into their camp.