Perhaps because safety is one of the criteria, along with progressive environmental policies, the survey favors small to medium-sized cities like Vancouver.
As opponents of the President gleefully jumped on the study as further proof that Obamacare is the Devil Incarnate, the world of progressive policy and pundits went into overdrive to discredit the survey, producing some terrific reporting by writers such as Greg Sargent over at the Washington Post, Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic and Brian Buetler at TPM.
But she soon realized that maintaining the objective distance required by a survey would not allow her to understand the broader contexts, nuanced situations, and progressive changes in feelings and environments faced by these women.