Ryan: 'War on women' fictional like 'war on left-handed Irishmen'

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan on Thursday mocked criticism of Republican efforts to erode female reproductive rights and oppose equal pay legislation, saying those complaints were as silly as claiming his party was fighting a "war on left-handed Irishmen."

"Now it’s a war on women; tomorrow it’s going to be a war on left-handed Irishmen or something like that," the Wisconsin Republican told donors at a fundraiser in Florida, according to ABC News contributing political reporter Shushannah Walshe.

Ryan's remarks come the same week that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney diminished pay equality with his story about “binders full of women.”

During a round-table discussion on ABC in June, Romney’s senior campaign adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, insisted that social issues important to women, like contraception coverage and abortion rights, were “shiny objects” that were being used to distract voters.

In April, Republican National Committee Reince Priebus denied that his party was waging a war on women, saying it was as fictional as a "war on caterpillars."

“If Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that the Republicans have a war on caterpillars then we would have problems with caterpillars,” Priebus told Bloomberg's Al Hunt. “The fact of the matter is that it’s a fiction.”