The new leader of the Federal Opposition, Tony Abbott

Within minutes of Tony Abbott’s unexpected ascent to the leadership of the embattled Liberal Party yesterday, the women in the Twitterverse that I follow were baying for blood. Abbott’s blood, and lots of it.

They were furious that the man who has been dubbed Captain Catholic or the Mad Monk had toppled the “progressive” ETS-champion Malcolm Turnbull by a single vote.

The invective was so instant and so prolific that it prompted me to Tweet shortly after 10am: “Boy, oh boy, Tony Abbott has a lot of ground to make up to the Twitterverse women – there is anger out there, Mr Abbott.”

Popular Tweeter and influential columnist Mia Freedman wanted to know Abbott’s position on contraception and IVF, pretty much around the same time she Tweeted, “there are still some women who don’t know where their own clitoris is”. She said Abbott’s leadership equalled a bad day for women.

A few months ago I ran into Abbott and we were chatting about IVF and he said he was for babies, any which way they came.

As for contraception, well, as we all know from the man himself, he didn’t use it – he has publicly spoken and written about the unknown son he wrongly thought he fathered in his teenaged years. Not using contraception doesn’t mean he’s against it; neither does it mean he’s for it.

I can’t recall anyone asking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, another committed church-going Christian about his position on contraception, abortion and IVF.

For the record, Abbott voted against removing the restricted goods provisions from the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 on the abortion drug RU-486 in 2005. But he was not Robinson Crusoe when it came to the conscience vote. And he wasn’t the first health minister to impose the restrictions.

Another professionally successful and clever woman, Marino Go, Tweeted: “I would rather eat my first born than vote for Abbott (with apologies to my first born)”. She later assured me the baby – now 16 – was safe. Phew!

Yet another typed: “Abbott once said that abortion should be outlawed in this country. People have such short memories. 1950’s here we come again!!”

Award winning journalist Tracy Grimshaw from A Current Affair

Last night Tracy Grimshaw pulled on the gloves and asked Abbott – on his first appearance as leader on A Current Affair - about his position on abortion.

He answered he was for “safe, legal, rare”. Who isn’t?

Somehow, Tweetchicks, I don’t think we’re headed back to the 1950s, even though Abbott does want to reintroduce fault-based divorce alongside the no-fault system, but only for those crazy masochists who prefer the harder, blame-game route to divorce.

Another popular Tweeter, journalist Julie Posetti, reckoned that Turnbull sounded 10 times better in defeat than Abbott with his “divisive and robotic” style.

Yet another wrote: “Oh God, Abbott’s even worse than I thought.”

The attacks were loud, many, and varied (I’m not even going to address those by the anti-Abbott blokes on Twitter, of whom there are also many).

What is it that makes some women hate Abbott? Is it because he’s proudly conservative? Or a Catholic? Would they be so vehemently anti-Buddhist, anti-Anglican, or anti-Muslim?

And is the antipathy rational? Or is it, as Miranda Devine wrote in her excellent Sydney Morning Herald column today, just that the chattering classes don’t like him?

A few months ago, Abbott launched his book, Battlelines, and as I wrote back then, Melbourne University Press boss Louise Adler agreed he was the “Liberal Party’s intellectual”. And she’s not known as a conservative.

Abbott likes women. He supports paid maternity leave, has taken part in the annual Pollie Pedal to raise money for breast cancer research (and other charities), and has raised three lovely daughters.

He even admitted in Parliament yesterday that the “flirting” with the Deputy Prime minister, Julia Gillard, must now stop.

She giggled.

Firting with the enemy? Yeah, Abbott’s really down on women.

The new righteous brothers - Nick, Joe and the newly engaged Kevin Jonas (r). pix Viacom International Inc

Is teen heartthrob Kevin Jonas getting ready to ditch the purity ring he’s been brandishing for the past few years after popping the question to his girlfriend, Danielle Deleasa, on the weekend?

At 22, Kevin is the oldest of the Jonas Brothers, all of whom wear the rings as a public statement about their decision to remain virgins until they marry.

I met the three Jonas boys in New York last year and went to the world premiere of their Disney Channel movie Camp Rock, a music filled extravaganza that was viewed by millions and millions (and then some) which confirmed their status as the world’s hottest teen stars.

Curiously, though, when asked about the purity rings, youngest brother Nick, clammed up. Defiantly.

“We are here to talk about Camp Rock today and we choose not to talk about that,’’ he said, taking control of the interview as brother Joe and Kevin looked straight ahead. Why not talk about the issue? After all, they are proudly devout Christians – their father Kevin Sr was a minister in the Assembly of God church in New Jersey before the boys hit the big time – and had long made a public show of their chastity with the bands on their ring fingers. Furthermore, the JoBros website quoted Joe Jonas saying he wears the ring as “a promise to myself and God to say pure until marriage”.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, in these days of rampant celebrity exhibitionism when the It Girls are bad girls and bad boys are considered cool, it’s refreshing to see that some people – celebs especially – are not afraid to wear their morality on their sleeve. So far, it seems to be working for them.

Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas remain among the few stars who haven’t been plagued by scandals and tawdry kiss and tell sagas, and their clean-cut image has helped make them multi-media multi-millionaires.

But back to Nick, who hadn’t yet turned 16. Even though there is no first among equals among the JoBros, and sibling rivalry seems to be non-existent, he appeared to be the leader of the pack during our interview for Australia’s sunday magazine. Joe said as much: “I would definitely say Nick is the leader type who I think will be the president one day”. Understandable, when you consider Nick was the first of the boys to get into the entertainment business, having made his Broadway debut, aged eight, playing Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol: The Musical.

Meanwhile, congrats to Kevin – there’ll be millions of hearts breaking across the world tonight, to borrow a memorable line from Top Gun.

And for those of you who want to catch my footage of the JoBros on the red carpet at the world premiere of Camp Rock, see below – and listen for the dish on Nick Jonas’s romantic ways with the girls!