An interesting Op-Ed piece was published today, arguing that Democrats, should they want to win the White House in 2008, need to listen to and show greater respect for pro-life women and women of faith. The most intriguing part about this op-ed was where it was published... the New York Times!.

Here are some juicy excerpts from the Op-Ed...

Even in the real world, a pro-choice Republican nominee would be a gift to the Democrats, because the Republican Party wins over so many swing voters on abortion alone....

Over 18 months, I traveled to 20 states listening to women of all ages, races, tax brackets and points of view speak at length on the issues they care about heading into ’08. They convinced me that the conventional wisdom was wrong about the last presidential contest, that Democrats did not lose support among women because “security moms” saw President Bush as the better protector against terrorism. What first-time defectors mentioned most often was abortion.

The standard response from Democratic leaders has been that anyone lost to them over this issue is not coming back — and that regrettable as that might be, there is nothing to be done. But that is not what I heard from these voters.

Many of them, Catholic women in particular, are liberal, deep-in-their-heart Democrats who support social spending, who opposed the war from the start and who cross their arms over their chests reflexively when they say the word “Republican.” Some could fairly be described as desperate to find a way home. And if the party they’d prefer doesn’t send a car for them, with a really polite driver, it will have only itself to blame.

Read the full piece here.

The Op-Ed was contributed by Melinda Henneberger, author of, If They Only Listened to Us: What Women Voters Want Politicians to Hear.