AMERICA'S President Barack Obama last night urged young American women to fight for their right to contraception and abortions, as allies accused Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, of "throwing women under the bus".

"We are better off when women are treated fairly and equally in every respect, whether it is the salary you earn or the health decisions that you make," Mr Obama said at Barnard College.

"Fight for your seat at the table or, better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table."

Democrats claim Republicans are waging a "war on women" by attempting to curtail their abortion rights and making it more difficult to obtain birth control.

In a thinly veiled attack on Mr Romney, Mr Obama said that "those who have opposed change" had lost in the past. "I believe they will lose this time as well," he said.

In becoming the presumed Republican nominee, Mr Romney, once a relative moderate, took a series of strident positions including promising to "get rid of" Planned Parenthood, a network of women's health clinics. He favours overturning Roe vs Wade, the historic Supreme Court decision granting the right to abortion.

Opinion polls place Mr Obama as many as 14 percentage points ahead of Mr Romney among women.

An advertisement released by MoveOn.org, a left-wing group, pledged to remind voters how Mr Romney "threw women under the bus just to get the nomination" of his party.

It also focused on Mr Romney's pledge to scrap Mr Obama's overhaul of the health care system, which dictates that insurance packages provided for staff by bosses must include birth control.

The Republicans dismissed Mr Obama's attacks, pointing out that women had suffered disproportionately in the jobs market under his presidency.

"Obama won't mention that many graduates will be unable to find a job thanks to his failed policies," a spokesman said.

Mr Obama was given the speaking role after Rush Limbaugh, a right-wing radio host, described Sandra Fluke, a graduate student campaigning for subsidised contraception, as a "slut". (© Daily Telegraph, London)

Irish Independent