On Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” Mary Matalin, a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, argued Republican Missouri senatorial candidate Todd Akin’s week-old comments about legitimate rape have been overplayed by Democrats hoping to prove the existence of a “war on women.”

But according to Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren, who also appeared as a panelist, Akin had handed a big boost to Democratic opponent Sen. Claire McCaskill.

“Sen. McCaskill should be sending a fruit basket to Congressman Akin every single day,” Van Susteren said. “And what has happened, the Republican Party has a horrible gender gap. And all of those women were sort of on the edge, now the Democratic Party has incredible ammunition against Republicans for the undecided women, who think ‘legitimate rape,’ what’s that? I mean, that’s the danger — the gender gap. You shake your head ‘no’ at me.”

Matalin pointed out that Democrats also have a gender problem of their own.

“I’m shaking my head because the Democratic gender gap with men as great as the gender gap with women,” Matalin said. “Greta — after the sustained war on women, that Romney is everything, from a dog abuser, to a wife cancer giver, to a felon, to a tax cheat, multimillion dollars, multi-state, multi-faceted the gender gap has remained stable, as has Obama’s with men. We’re doing fine with women. What’s driving the gender gap with Obama — excuse me, one second — is liberal women, women under 30 and post-graduate women. Romney wins every other woman, middle class moms, suburbans. Those are the women who are going to vote. The enthusiasm among younger people, in particularly post-graduate, that’s not enough to overcome the women that Romney is going to win.”

“And this war on women is ridiculous,” she continued. “Do you don’t think that Republicans who are married and have daughters and have sisters don’t care about women’s health or are going to ban contraception?”

Follow Jeff on Twitter