According to a recent poll by NBC/The Wall Street Journal, President Barack Obama has a 15 point advantage among female voters over Mitt Romney for the 2012 presidential election.

The recent poll data [PDF] shows that President Obama leads by six points over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney among all registered voters. When the responses are broken down according to sex, female voters favor President Obama 54% to 39% for Mitt Romney creating a gender gap heading into the election season.

Responses to the poll were collected July 18 through the 22, prior to the Akin “legitimate rape” controversy. Since the Akin controversy erupted, President Obama has held a press conference stating [VIDEO] “Rape is rape… we should not have politicians, the majority of whom are men, making healthcare decisions for women.”

Media Resources: Morning Joe 8/21/2012; MSNBC 8/21/2012; MSNBC 8/20/12; NBC/The Wall Street Journal 7/22/2012