“Domestic violence is an incredibly serious issue and the Congresswoman was by no means belittling the very real pain survivors’ experience.”

This is something you never want to have to say, especially if you are one of the chief combatants in the so-called “war on women.” This was part of a statement provided to CNN by Lily Adams, a spokeswoman for Democratic National Committee Chair and Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, after her boss really stepped in it.

Getting a little over excited at a women’s issues event in Milwaukee, Wasserman Schultz accused Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker of engaging in domestic violence against women. She said that Walker has “given women the back of his hand” and is “grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back.”

Here is the video of the DNC chairwoman’s comments, via BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski:

This callous appropriation of the language of abuse is unlikely to change any of the minds of those for whom accessing taxpayer-funded abortifacients is tantamount to having the right to vote, but it is going to blunt any future offensives in the “war on women.”

Every Republican candidate from here to November is perfectly justified in deflecting the silly gotcha questions they will receive from debate moderators about access to contraception by referencing Wasserman Schultz’s belittling of domestic violence.

But it’s not merely Wasserman Schultz who has defused the war on women attacks. On Wednesday night, North Carolina’s U.S. Senate candidates Thom Tillis and Kay Hagan took to the debate stage where they faced off on a number of issues including the stalemated war on the fairer sex.

CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell asked both candidates if they agreed with the Supreme Court’s majority ruling in the Hobby Lobby case which found that the government could not force closely held businesses to provide certain types of contraception coverage over their owners’ religious objections.

Tillis’ answer was surprising. He agreed with the ruling, but he also believed that, like Colorado’s U.S. Senate Candidate Rep. Cory Gardner, contraception should be made more widely available.

“I actually agree with the American Medical Association that we should make contraception more widely available,” he said. “I think oral the — over the counter oral contraception should be available without prescription. You would actually increase the access and reduce the barriers for having more option for women for contraception.”

That seems reasonable. It is certainly not an answer reflective of a Neanderthal alpha who wants to control women’s bodies and take the country back to the 1950s, or whatever word salad those liberals with terminal case of 2012 nostalgia are crafting these days.

Tillis’ response was perfectly disarming for anyone stepped in “war on women” rhetoric, and Kay Hagan’s reply that of someone who had been disarmed.

Hagan’s was a flailing and unconvincing response. Her only remaining sound attack on Tillis was his opposition to public funding for Planned Parenthood, something which may not exactly turn off a majority of Tar Heel State voters.

Wednesday was a brutal day for the Democrats in the war on women. On two fronts, a party which enjoyed such successes with that message encountered serious resistance. It may be that one of the most effective tools in the Democratic arsenal has finally been neutralized.