House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at her Catholic archbishop Thursday after he described a pro-abortion bill that she supports as “legislation one would expect from a devout Satanist, not a devout Catholic.”
Pelosi, a pro-abortion Democrat from San Francisco, professes to be a devout Catholic. On Friday, however, she plans to hold a House vote on a bill that would erase basically all restrictions on abortion and prevent states from enacting even modest protections for unborn babies.
Her bishop, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, blasted the legislation as “child sacrifice” earlier this week and chastised Catholic politicians who support it.
Asked about his comments at a press conference Thursday, Pelosi laughed, responding, “The archbishop of the city, that area, of San Francisco and I have a disagreement about who should decide this.”
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“I believe that God has given us a free will to honor our responsibilities,” she continued, according to a video that EWTN host Catherine Hadro shared on Twitter.
Here’s more from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Pelosi acknowledged that she is [Catholic] and comes from a family that was against abortion. But she said her own views are also shaped by her experience as a mother of five.
“I keep saying to people who say things like that, when you have five children in six days, six years and one day, we can talk about what business it is of any of us to tell anyone else what to do,” Pelosi said. “For us it was a complete and total blessing which we enjoy every day of our lives, but it’s none of our business how other people choose the size and timing of their families.”
The bill at issue is the deceptively named Women’s Health Protection Act. In a recent statement, the U.S. Catholic bishops said the bill would override all “meaningful” limits on late-term abortions and allow viable unborn babies to be aborted for basically any reason up to birth. It would force taxpayers to pay for abortions, too.
“Any reasonable person with a basic sense of morality and inkling of decency cannot but shudder in horror at such a heinous evil being codified in law,” Cordileone said Tuesday.
“This proposed legislation is nothing short of child sacrifice,” he continued. “[It] is surely the type of legislation one would expect from a devout Satanist, not a devout Catholic.”
“To Catholic politicians in particular, I implore you to listen to the words of Pope Francis who just last weekend, during his flight back to Rome from Slovakia, said: ‘Abortion is more than a problem. Abortion is homicide…. It is a human life, period. And this human life must be respected,’” the archbishop said.
In the same speech, Pope Francis compared aborting an unborn baby to hiring a hitman to murder someone.
Cordileone and other bishops have been urging people to pray and fast for the defeat of the bill, and pro-life organizations are urging people to contact Congress in opposition to it.
The bill may pass the Democrat-controlled House, but it likely will be blocked in the Senate.
If passed, the bill would:
- Eliminate all state and federal parental consent laws in relation to abortion
- Eliminate all state informed consent laws, including those that allow women to view an ultrasound prior to abortion
- Prevent states from passing laws to protect babies at 20 weeks, thereby joining countries like North Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, and the Netherlands in not protecting unborn children later in development
- Force doctors and nurses opposed to abortion to lose their jobs, and Catholic hospitals could lose public funds unless they perform abortions
- Eliminate decades-long limitations on direct taxpayer funding of abortion – including the popular Hyde Amendment, which has saved over 2 million lives since enacted
- In short, overturn all federal and state pro-life laws, and go further to make it illegal for elected officials to even introduce pro-life legislation
Polls consistently show strong opposition to the measures in the bill, including taxpayer-funded abortions. A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that 65 percent of Americans think most or all abortions should be illegal in the second-trimester and 80 percent think most or all should be illegal in the third trimester.
ACTION ALERT: Contact U.S. House lawmakers and tell them to vote NO on this radical pro-abortion legislation.
