The crowd at Wednesday night's GOP presidential debate booed heartily when the candidates were asked about the recent controversy over contraception.
And the candidates, after saying they didn't want to talk about it, went on at length attacking President Obama on the issue.
The issue has come to the forefront largely because of a fight between Obama and some religious organizations, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, over whether their insurance plans should be required to include contraception.
The candidates quickly piled on, attacking the media and Obama on the issue.
Newt Gingrich went first, blasting the media for their coverage of the issue then accusing Obama for supporting "infanticide."
"There is a legitimate question about the power of the government to impose on religion activities which any religion opposes, that's legitimate," he said. "But I just want to point out: You did not once in the 2008 campaign, not once did anybody in the elite media ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide. Let's be clear here: If we're going to have a debate about who the extremist is on these issues it is President Obama who as a state senator voted to protect doctors who killed babies who survived the abortion."
Mitt Romney attacked Obama as well. "I don't think we've seen in the history of this country the kind of attack on religious conscience, religious freedom, religious tolerance that we've seen under Barack Obama," he said, blasting the president for the contraception rule.
After CNN moderator John King pointed out that Rick Santorum had been talking a lot about the issue, the former senator explained his view on contraception and the family.
"What we're seeing is a problem in our culture with respect to children being raised by children... and the impact on society economically," he said. "There are bigger problems at stake in America. and someone's going to go out there, I will, and talk about the things."
But Santorum said that he wouldn't push to make contraception illegal. "Hust because I'm talking about it doesn't mean I want a government program to fix it," he said. "That's what [Democrats] do, that's not what we do."
