Demographically, it's one of the Republicans' biggest problems. I'm not sure you characterize Ryan correctly, though. Anyone brought up Catholic will have his views drummed into them from an early age. To go as far as to say "contempt of women" isn't quite right, I think. The religious issue around "when a life is a life" is slightly more complicated than that.

Having written all this, I'm on your side for this issue. Not the government's role to decide or take a position on existence of a soul, at least until a fetus is viable.