Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, invoked her Catholic faith while stating her pro-abortion stance on Thursday, but she remained silent on the mounting attacks on Catholic churches and pro-life pregnancy centers.
During her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill, the Democrat from California said, “I’m a very Catholic person, and I believe in every woman’s right to make her own decisions.”
Abortion, defined as the killing of a human being, is considered a grave sin by the Catholic Church.
Pelosi refused to say whether she agreed with Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Francis that “abortion is murder” at the same press conference.
“What I agree on is that whatever I believe, agree with the popes on, is not necessarily what public policy should be in the United States as people make their own judgments, honor their own responsibilities, and tend to the needs of their families,” she responded.
Pelosi’s remarks came after she was questioned about Republican claims that Democrats have been silent on recent attacks on churches and pro-life pregnancy centers by pro-abortion activists.
As the Supreme Court prepares to decide a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973, Republicans have accused Democrats of helping to fuel the attacks with pro-abortion rhetoric.
Pelosi made no mention of the attacks in her response.
Pelosi began by saying, “A woman has a right to choose, to live up to her responsibility. It’s up to her, her doctor, her family, her husband, her significant other, and her god.”
“Talk of politicizing all of this,” she said, was “something uniquely American and not right.”
Pelosi also mentioned that “very Catholic countries” like Ireland, Italy, and Mexico have passed laws “to expand a woman’s right to choose.”
Pelosi has repeatedly defended abortion while citing her Catholic faith over the years. Pelosi will no longer be able to receive Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, according to Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone.
A number of other archbishops and bishops followed in his footsteps.