August 09, 2012 12:01 AM UTC

Obama Stumps For Women Voters In Denver

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• by: Colorado Pols

President Barack Obama speaks at the Auraria Campus in Denver today. Photo courtesy Serena Woods

Kicking off the coverage tour of President Barack Obama’s speech at the Auraria Campus in Denver today, FOX 31’s Eli Stokols reports:

Following the model Sen. Michael Bennet used to eke out a narrow and unexpected victory here in 2010, Obama is focusing the attention of female voters, a key demographic in this critical state, on policy issues related to their own health…

Embracing the term “Obamacare”, Obama underlined the provisions in the Affordable Care Act that are helping women and seniors get more comprehensive and affordable healthcare; and he criticized Republican Mitt Romney for campaigning on a promise to repeal the law.

“When it comes to a woman’s right to make her own healthcare choices, they want to take us back to the policies of the 1950s,” Obama said. “The decisions that affect a woman’s health, they’re not up to politicians or insurance companies. They’re up to you. And you’ve got a president who will fight to keep it that way.”

Local journalist Sandra Fish writes for the Washington Post:

[Sandra] Fluke’s presence in Denver places an emphasis on Obama’s support for insurance coverage for contraception and, to a lesser extent, his support for abortion rights. Rush Limbaugh thrust Fluke into the spotlight earlier this year calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute” for testifying before Congress in favor of insurance coverage for women’s contraception.

Conservative interest group Colorado’s Future Project slammed Fluke’s presence at Obama’s Denver event, calling it insulting to women and calling Fluke “a sideshow and distraction.”

But the Obama camp is likely to continue its emphasis on reproductive issues. An Obama ad running in Colorado features women calling Romney “extreme,” a tag Democrats placed on Buck in 2010…

Politico:

“[Obama] defended my right to speak without being attacked,” Fluke said. “Mr. Romney could only say those weren’t the words he would have chosen. Well, Mr. Romney, you’re not going to be the candidate we choose.”

She upbraided him for failing to stand up to Limbaugh more forcefully, and said if he can’t stand up to such “extreme” voices, “we know he’ll never stand up for us and he wont defend the rights that generations of women have fought for.”

Fluke said, “Romney is offering us only dangerous promises to take us backward.”