CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – When she can’t be in New Hampshire to answer voters’ questions in person, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is phoning it in.

Like several other White House hopefuls, Clinton has been doing some long-distance campaigning via telephone conference calls. The New York senator has held three so far, most recently Thursday night, when about 50 New Hampshire nurses spent just over half an hour on the phone with her. The goal is to give busy voters who might not make it to a campaign rally or speech a way to interact with candidates at a convenient time and from home.

“Hopefully the dishes are done and your family is settled down and you have a quiet moment to talk to me,” said Clinton, who gave an abbreviated version of her campaign speech before answering four questions, all from women and all relating to health care.

In the Internet age of Web videos and political blogs, Clinton’s Democratic rivals also are making use of the old-fashioned telephone. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has held two conference calls with New Hampshire voters since May, each involving about a couple dozen people. Delaware Sen. Joe Biden held a conference call with supporters around the country just before the CNN-YouTube debate in July in which he answered questions submitted ahead of time. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has held conference calls with New Hampshire bloggers, reporters and supporters.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, meanwhile, prefers to keep in touch with New Hampshire voters by posting live videos from his events in other states or clips showing him answering questions submitted by voters. John Edwards, who also posts videos of his events online, asks voters at the end of each town hall forum to e-mail him questions that they didn’t get to ask.

Joyce Cappiello, who teaches nursing at the University of New Hampshire, heard about the Clinton call from an e-mail distribution list for nurse-practitioners and jumped at the chance to participate.

She told Clinton she was dismayed that some women don’t have access to all reproductive health services because Catholic hospitals don’t offer contraceptive counseling and some pharmacy workers refuse to sell the morning-after emergency birth control pill. Critics consider the pill tantamount to abortion, though its makers say it has no effect on women once they are pregnant.

In her answer, Clinton said there is a role for “conscience clauses,” but not if it means putting people’s health at risk.

“We cannot allow women’s health to be politicized,” she said. “I think we have to do more to guarantee that necessary services are widely and broadly available, and if there is a justifiable reason for some professional not to offer services, then wherever that professional works, there has to be immediate offering of services so that no person who deserves to have access to legally available services would be denied.”

Cappiello, 58, of Barrington, said in an interview later that she was impressed with Clinton’s answer but wasn’t won over yet.

“I’m undecided at the moment because she hasn’t announced her full health care plan yet, and health care is probably going to be the deciding issue for me,” she said. “I’ve been patiently waiting for hers to come out so I can compare them and make a decision.”

Clinton plans to announce her universal health care plan in the coming weeks.

On the Republican side, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee likes to call individual voters he’s met on the campaign trail to answer any follow-up questions they might have.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign arranged a call with more than 2,000 New Hampshire residents earlier this summer. While Clinton’s campaign targeted specific groups – nurses this week, educators last month – the Romney campaign made cold calls to Republican and independent voters asking them to join the call just as it got under way.

“We don’t know in advance who they’re going to be. We just invite them on the spot to take part in the call,” said Jim Merrill, Romney’s New Hampshire chairman.

Though they were free to say whatever they wanted during the call, those seeking to question Clinton had to submit their questions in advance. Like Romney’s call, Clinton’s first two conference calls were closed to the media, but the campaign provided The Associated Press with an audio recording of one of the calls and allowed a reporter to listen in on Thursday.

Republican Sen. John McCain also has done telephone “town hall” forums in several states, including one in late May that included 464 New Hampshire participants. McCain, speaking from his campaign headquarters in Washington, gave a brief speech and then answered questions for about an hour.

At the end, participants were asked to stay on the line while staffers asked them if they were interested in volunteering with the campaign. Those who didn’t get to ask their questions could record them to be answered later. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani hasn’t hosted telephone forums, but will join supporters who host fundraisers for him around the country via a live Web cast later this month.

Merrill said telephone town-halls don’t replace face-to-face encounters but are a good way for Romney to reach out when he is out of state.

“It bridges the gap between more distant technology like e-mail that might be a bit more anonymous or impersonal and a sit-down at the local coffee shop,” Merrill said.

Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin agreed.

“Senator Obamas preference, of course, is to take questions from voters face to face – something he does as often as he can – but when that isnt possible, talking by phone is the next best thing,” he said.