appoint justices -- two justice are likely to retire. they will appoint justices who will overturn roe v. wade. >> i was so pleased to hear him do that. we just did a special issue at "the nation" called the 1% court. the next president has the opportunity to appoint possibly four justices. four justices are over the age of 70. so i think it is a very critical appointment, and this is a court that could not only overturn roe v. wade but robert bourque was a -- it has also debt with citizens united and it's critical. >> jennifer: it is critical. after the first debate the gender gap which had been favoring president obama was now basically even. what does the president have to do in the next debate to get that back? >> he has to talk about women's issues across the spectrum. >> jennifer: i beam interested to see if citizens united comes up in the next one too. katrina vanden heuvel thank you for joining us inside "the war room." >> thank you. >> jennifer: and thank you for the battle in the nation. up next it was no surprise that paul ryan didn't go into detail about his budget last night

of times. and what's at stake -- what this means is that mitt romney wants to overturn roe v. wade. we know that. mitt romney doesn't believe in equal pay. mitt romney wants employers to make decisions about female employee's contraception. if i want contraception, i have to have my boss approve it even though it is my insurance plan with my insurance company. these are things that mitt romney has promised to do. i think women all over this country need to pay attention to it. there is a lot of talk out there about the gender gap closing. mark my words on election day there will be a gender gap and it will be a big gender gap and for very good reason. mitt romney -- >> jennifer: that's what i'm talking about. go go, women! all right. wait, now there is another piece of good news today. president obama got a really important endorsement from secretary of state colin powell. what does it mean when the stars of the g.o.p. are refusing to support romney? i can't help it, stephanie. >> i love softball. you know governor, i think that colin powell probably watched the debate this week ju

would happen if there was an overturn by roe v. wade it would go back to the state, and you know that. >> jennifer: but you have half of the states to the position of banning abortion, and even if they agree there should be an exception in the case of rape or incest, how does that get determined? does a woman go before a rape panel in order to qualify for the exception? these are legitimate questions if in fact that kind of extreme view gets passed. >> the much more legitimate question is this not only right to life, but right to make a living, with unemployment, and the under employment in double digits, with vast overspending. this election is going to be decided on the questions economically. >> jennifer: i don't know, j.d., it's real important for women. i can tell you that's very important. our resident tea partier. thank you for joining us. when we come back we'll find out what president bill clinton is helping to do to woo women. and brett has some tips. right by those who gave their lives to for this country nearly 70 years ago. [ male announcer ] red lobster's hitting th

appoint supreme court justices who would hopefully overturn roe v. wade. in 2007 he said he would be delighted to sign a bill banning abortion. not exactly what he told the des moines register yesterday. but then today he reversed positions again, saying that even though yesterday he pledged not to push a pro-life agenda that, quote, . . . 1002. two flips in two days. that's a pretty good performance even for the worlds flip flop record holder. joining me now is christine pelosi, chair of the california democratic party women's caucus. are you dizzy? >> very dizzy. >> jennifer: your head is spinning, how is that? because of all of that. >> it is dizzying to see mitt romney do that. the republican party wants a supreme court that will overturn roe v. wade and further cement citizens united in our culture. they want to take away the voices of women and enfranchise voices of corporations. and they must be stopped. >> jennifer: last night your mom was on the show and i'm going to play a sound bite. >> i would say one word to the biden women. whether it's talking about affordable health c

president eight years. roe v. wade wasn't reversed. he had two supreme court picks. roe v. wade wasn't reversed. it's not going to be reversed. this is norm coleman conservative republican telling a republican audience something that they do not want to hear. how confusing is that? >> very confusing. there are ads out there right now, women saying things like look, i've heard that romney is against contraception. that's just a lie. i think democrats have never claimed romney is against contraception but the fact is romney has made it very, very clear what he would do with regard to supreme court appointments and row. have wade. >> jennifer: he said it numerous times. >> a lot of the women, they're trying to get the message across. it is not just about the presidential race. it is about the u.s. senate races. >> jennifer: in fact, you've got -- big senate race of course, elizabeth warren and scott brown. suffolk university poll has her up today by 7 points. he's declined to do the third debate. he used the hurricaning as an excuse but now he says he doesn't want to -- >> some of

hostile to women's rights, particularly to women's reproductive choice, than they have been since roe v. wade was decided. the gender gap is also now an animating feature, of course, of the presidential campaign. as we saw in the nbc marist poll that came out yesterday for iowa and wisconsin, the gender gap in both of those states where president obama is leading the gender gap in both those states is 18 points. the republican side knows it desperately needs to close the gender gap if they're going to win this race. the democrats know they are actually really dependent on that gender gap nape a. depend on that gender gap persisting. that as much as anything else in the race is driving what the candidates and campaigns are doing now 18 days out from the presidential election. today, here's how you could tell. >> mr. severely conservative wants you to think he was severely kidding about everything he said over the last year. i mean, he's changing up so much and backtracking and sidestepping. we've got to -- we've got to name this condition that he's going through. i think -- i think it'

court ruling called roe versus wade. right now the ideological balance of the court is such that if an outright challenge to roe versus wade were heard in this court, the vote, we think, would likely be a 5-4 decision to keep roe versus wade, to protect a woman's right to have an abortion. if the makeup of the court changes by one justice, though, it would be about five seconds before conservatives got a case challenging roe into the court, once they were sure that the ruling would be 4-5 instead of 5-4. with four supreme court justices over the age of 70, whoever becomes president is likely to be able to appoint at least one new supreme court justice. and if it is a republican president, he will appoint nominees who will definitely vote to overturn roe versus wade. and abortion will then, immediately become a criminal act at the state level and every state that's willing to do that. and we know republicans will immediately try to ban it federally as well. they have been trying that for a very along time, including multiple times in this congress. what the republican party is fighti

ryan broke new ground on saying how and why he and mitt romney would overturn roe v. wade and make abortion criminal. his issue on rape in particular has people going nuts today for obvious reasons. we'll be covering that in future shows. joe biden also dipped paul ryan in tar and rolled him in feathers on the issue of the stimulus. and mr. ryan's supposed principles on that issue. we talked about that moments ago with chris hayes. but there are two things that i think are hugely important to the presidential campaign that happened last night. two things that i, frankly, never thought we would get to. and that we got to and, boy, howdy, is this new territory. first was this. >> you asked, do i feel free? let me put it to you this way. i earned capital in the campaign, political capital and now i intend to spend it. it is my style. that's what happened in, after the 2000 election. i earned some capital. i've earned capital in this election, and i'm going to spend it for what i told the people i'd spend it on. which is you've heard the agenda. social security and -- >> social securit

right now is roe versus wade. what does he think of roe versus wade? >> do i believe the supreme court should overturn roe v. wade? yes, i do. >> clear, right? how about the largest abortion provider in the united states, which also happens to be the largest provider of women's health care in the united states, that's planned parenthood. what does mitt romney want to do there? >> planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. >> and on that one, the romney campaign sometimes tries to complain about that sound bite. going to get rid of planned parenthood, whenever anybody uses it. but on his campaign website, it says right there in black and white, he's going to get rid of planned parenthood. it has a priority of his. he told "the des moines register" that he has no specific legislation in mind at all that he would use to go after women's health rights or access to abortion. no specific legislation in mind at all. well, here's the pledge that he signed and put forth as an op-ed on the "national review" online last year. detailing specific named anti-abortion legislation that he wou

national policy as clearly as we know the policy of the entire ticket would be to overturn roe v. wade and make abortion illegal. >> if the ticket is elected should those who believe that abortion should remain legal be worried? >> we don't think that unelected judges should make this decision, that people, through their elected representatives in reaching a consensus in society for the democratic process

policy as clearly as we know the policy of the entire ticket would be to overturn roe v. wade and make abortion illegal. >> if the ticket is elected should those who believe that abortion should remain legal be worried? >> we don't think that unelected judges should make this decision, that people, through their elected representatives in reaching a consensus in society for the democratic process should make this determination. >> the court, the next president will get one or two supreme court nominees. that's how close roe v. wade is. just ask yourself with robert bork being the chief adviser on the court for mr. romney, who do you think he's likely to appoint? someone like scalia or someone else on the court far right that would outlaw abortion?