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Seeking to shore up his support among women voters, President Barack Obama hammered Republican rival Mitt Romney over his backing of Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, and went on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno to say “rape is rape” and the distinctions offered by the Republican candidate “don’t make any sense to me.”

“I don’t know how these guys come up with these ideas. Let me make a very simple proposition: rape is rape. It is a crime,” Obama said on NBC’s late show, taped Wednesday.

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“This is exactly why you don’t want a bunch of politicians, mostly male, making decisions about women’s healthcare.”

The Obama campaign sees Romney’s endorsement of Mourdock — who said pregnancies that result from rape are “something God intended” — as a way to strengthen the president’s support among women, who are the key demographic in an Obama re-election.

“Unlike some other leaders in the Republican Party, like John McCain, Mitt Romney hasn’t questioned his endorsement of Richard Mourdock or ever once stood up to the most extreme elements of his own party. Instead, he tapes ads for them,” Obama’s campaign says in an online video. The campaign hasn’t ruled out using similar ads on television in battleground states.