Romney Erodes Obama's Lead With Women, AP Poll Finds

But same survey finds Obama gaining among men, leaving race virtually tied

In a sign that women may be deciding to vote with their wallets not their wombs, a new poll has found that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has erased the president's two-digit lead among women voters.

The Associated Press-GfK poll, taken Friday through Tuesday, showed women supporting Romney by the same margin as women support President Barack Obama, 47-47. During the period one month prior, Obama led Romney among women by 16 points.

Despite the GOP's anti-choice platform when it comes to abortion and a number of gaffes by GOP candidates either calling pregnancy by rape God's will or stating one cannot get pregnant by rape, pundits viewed the AP-GfK poll numbers as a sign that Romney's message to women that jobs matter more than reproductive choice issues may be getting through. While women favored Obama over Romney on the economy a month ago 56 to 40, polling shows women now favoring Romney on the issue to Obama by a narrow 49-45 margin.

[ALSO READ: Pregnancy From Rape 'God Intended']

However, the same AP-GfK poll found something for the president to smile about as well, a jump in support for Obama among men. The poll showed Obama narrowing the gap in support from men compared to his Republican challenger to a 5-point difference, down from a 13-point difference one month prior. This leaves the race a virtual tie, with Romney beating Obama by just 2 percentage points, a result that is within the poll's margin of error.

[ALSO READ: 'Legitimate' Rape Outrage]

And the issue of reproductive rights could still hurt Romney at the polls, with women voters still indicating that trusted Obama more than Romney when it comes to making the right decisions on women's issues by a margin of 55 percent to 41 percent.

[SUBSCRIBE TO LOOP 21 RSS FEED]