WASHINGTONPresident Barack Obama, emboldened by the Supreme Court's affirmation of his health care overhaul, is now embracing the law while campaigning for re-election, just as Republican rival Mitt Romney steps back from it.

Obama sees a second chance to sell voters on the issue despite deep skepticism about it from many people. Romney is avoiding answering hard questions about how he would tackle health care, and thus missing the chance to energize voters who oppose the law.

Democrats say the president always planned to stress health care if the court upheld the law. A month after the ruling, he and his team are focused on promoting individual parts of the law that have proved more popular than the sum. The campaign is targeting its efforts on important groups of voters, including women and Hispanics, who, Obama aides say, will benefit greatly once the law takes full effect.

Before the decision, Obama did mention the law in campaign events. But the case he made to voters was hardly vigorous, especially considering the amount of time he dedicated to overhaul during his first year in year in office.

The primary focus of his campaign speeches remains the economy, the race's dominant issue. But the Supreme Court's favorable ruling appears to have freed Obama to speak about the health law more passionately and emphatically than before the case was decided.

His campaign also is running a television advertisement in eight of the most contested states that criticizes Romney for opposing mandatory health insurance coverage for contraception; that provision is in Obama's overhaul. A health care-focused Spanish-language ad is running in Nevada, Colorado and Florida.

"The Supreme Court has spoken," Obama told a cheering crowd at a recent fundraiser in New Orleans. "We are going to implement this law."

During an event near Seattle, Obama said passing the law was "the right thing to do" and he highlighted specific parts of the overhaul that his campaign believes resonate well with voters.

"Young people will be able to stay on their parents' plans till they're 26 years old," Obama said. "Women won't be getting charged more than men, and you'll be getting free preventive care. Seniors will see the cost of their prescription drugs go down. If you don't have health insurance we're going to help you get it."

His campaign has been aggressive in selling the health overhaul to women.

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Obama embraces health care law after court ruling