SAN JOSE -- Rep. Todd Akin's controversial comments about rape and abortion aren't just for Missourians to mull in their Senate race -- they're typical of a mindset that pervades and perverts the entire GOP, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer said Tuesday.

"It's deeper than one Republican congressman -- it goes all the way to the top of the Republican ticket," she said. "The truth is there's a war against women, and it's not going to end until we all say at the polls, 'That's not the country we want.'"

Boxer, D-Calif., used her previously scheduled speech to Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte at San Jose City Hall to try to ensure that the furor over Akin's comments tarnish presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. "The mainstream of the Republican Party is now extreme on women's health," she said.

"There is a war against women, and Romney and Ryan -- if they are elected -- would become its top generals," Boxer said, urging the audience to remember the days when desperate women and girls died in botched, back-alley abortions. "We cannot go back."

-snip-

http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_21366315/boxer-akin-is-symptom-but-ryan-and-romney