Ann Romney refuses to discuss "hot-button issues"

(CBS News) Ann Romney on Friday declined to answer questions about same-sex marriage and birth control during an interview with an Iowa TV station, calling them "hot-button issues that distract from what the real voting issue is going to be ... the economy and jobs."

In the interview with NBC affiliate KWQC in Davenport, Romney delivered a message to female voters: "Trust my husband, he does not fail, he will not fail." But when asked for her thoughts on whether a lesbian mother should be allowed to marry her partner and if employer-provided health insurance should be required to cover birth control, she said she was doing the interview to talk about her husband Mitt Romney and economic issues.

When pressed by the reporter, who said a Pew Research Center poll showed that both issues ranked as "important" or "very important" to women, the wife of the GOP nominee turned to her own experiences campaigning for her husband.

"I've spoken with thousands of women and they are telling me, they're telling me a couple of things," she said. "One they say they're praying for me which is really wonderful, and then they're saying, 'please help, please help. We are so worried about our jobs.