Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz on Monday challenged Hillary Clinton's assertion that the GOP was acting as America's "condom policy," quipping that the country was not suffering from a "rubber shortage."

The comment by the Tea Party favorite came as a reaction to a question from an audience member at a campaign rally in the crucial early-caucus state of Iowa, CNN reported. Cruz was asked about "making contraception available to women who want to control their own bodies," the news channel detailed.

"Last I checked, we don't have a rubber shortage in America," the Texas senator joked. "When I was in college we had a machine in the bathroom, you put 50 cents in and voilà! So yes, anyone who wants contraceptives can access them, but it's an utterly made-up nonsense issue."

Cruz said Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, was nevertheless focusing on the issue so as to avoid drawing attention to what he views as President Barack Obama's failed policies.

"Imagine for a second you're Hillary Clinton. You're trying to think: 'How do I run?' Well, you can't run on the economy because we have the lowest percentage of Americans working any year since 1977," the 44-year-old candidate analyzed.

"You can't run on Obamacare because millions of people have lost their jobs, lost their health care, lost their doctors, seen their premiums skyrocket. You certainly can't run on foreign policy because every country you touched as secretary of state is a disaster," Cruz added in reference to Clinton's four-year term as the nation's top diplomat.

At the same time, the Texan reiterated his opposition to abortion in general and a controversial method of late-term abortion in particular, Politico noted.

"Hillary Clinton embraces abortion on demand in all circumstances up until the moment of birth," the Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate alleged. "Partial-birth abortion with taxpayer funding, with no notification for parents in any circumstances -- 91 percent of Americans say that's nuts."