http://www.france24.com/en/20120108-republican-romney-santorum-presidential-election-us-debate-new%20hampshire
REUTERS - Most of the U.S. Republican presidential candidates laid out their credentials as social conservatives in a debate on Saturday as the 2012 campaign prepares to move from moderate New Hampshire to church-going South Carolina.
Abortion rights and same-sex marriage were among the issues that came up in the ABC News debate at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum led the charge at the ABC News debate, declaring that marriage is a federal issue that should be defined as being between a man and a woman - even though he said in the same breath that the question of same-sex couples to adopt children was a “states rights” issue.
The 100-minute debate was heavy on economic issues, military and trade policy, but took a detour into the culture wars when front-runner Mitt Romney was asked about whether states should have the ability to ban access to contraception - an apparent attempt to engage Romney and Santorum.
After a lengthy back-and-forth with the moderator, the former Massachusetts governor concluded, to applause, that “no state wants to do (it), and asking me whether they could do it or not is kind of a silly thing, I think.”