government, and the second piece, the number one thing that young women, women of child bearing age have to make choices about early on are contraception, bearing children, the terms under which all of that will happen and so what we saw was that the very conservative elements of the republican party, many of them carrying tea party labels, went directly to government making health care choices, i.e., making the choice to get in the way of me making a contraceptive or abortion choice. the thing is, it s been driven this war on women and that the republicans want to get in the middle of that. that is absolutely not it. what that is about is religious freedom. about the first amendment. if these catholic churches and hospitals don t want to perform procedures or provide certain medicines, then that falls under religious freedom. they shouldn t be mandated by the government. that s what this country is founded upon, it s the constitution and that s one of our constitutional rights. the
reporter: the researchers say conditions that cause a spike in insulin can starve a mother s tissues of oxygen, lowering the oxygen supply to their unborn child and potentially affecting its brain development. pretty normal. reporter: right now more than 60% of women of child bearing age in the u.s. are considered overweight or obese. if you are planning a pregnant si, you might think about losing weight and getting your exercise routine in order and making sure you re controlling your blood sugar. reporter: factors that could help the next generation s physical and mental health. michelle franzen, nbc news. well, the nicks return. the tigers claw the red sox in extra innings and the pirates don the your first look at sports is straight ahead. you re watching first look on m snchtsz nbc. [ barking ] i m your dog,
i mean, mitt romney in one month his support among women of child bearing age has dropped 14 points in 12 swing states across the country, according to gallup u.s.a. today. there is no question that this war on em with stuff has had a major impact and to in a way to governor hayley s point, i think part of what women is saying are, really, we are relate gating the battles of the 50s and 60s? paul ryan down, nikki haley down. joe, sarah palin says congressman allen west would be her pick for romney s running mate after saying it is not important for a vice president to have experience on the national stage nor that he should be safe. allen west, i mean, he may not be safe, but is allen west sane? that s the question. i mean, the remark that sarah palin made, i mean, she should know of anybody whether or not experience matters on a v.p.
birth control should not be part of the political debate. so laura, it seems thatwomen ha that women do have strong views. they certainly do, and i would add that birth control is not an entirely separate issue from the economy. especially for women. you know, in addition to many low income women struggling to pay for date of birth control. the ability to afford it allows them to delay child bearing and helps them. women who have earlier access to birth control in their lives earn much more 10 to 20 years down the road. it is an economic issue. this is all intertwined. terri, let s look at this broader than romney. has this become republican orthodoxy that we re going to be
women? it was nice to have your voice a part of this just now. but what about you, michael? why aren t you out there talking about this because you have understood it. i have talked about it from the perspective of why don t we have, a, why are we having this conversation when people are trying to get jobs. because republicans let me tell you why we re having this conversation when people are trying to get jobs. because there is a direct relationship between women s capacity to be economically self-supporting and women s capacity to be able to plan and space their child bearing. you know, you can t get through ch college, you can t get through a career if you can t plan and space your own child bearing. i got all of that. i get back to my core point from a party standpoint on an issue like this, that the voices we hear emanating out of the party are not the women of the party. and their views on this. regardless of where they are on this, the conversation becomes when i