Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) described herself as both a “devout” and “practicing” Catholic as she defended abortion during remarks made Tuesday.
The California Democrat sat down with Mark K. Updegrove, president and CEO of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, for an event during Women’s History Month on Tuesday where she discussed the importance of upholding Roe v. Wade.
“I’m a devout Catholic, mother of five children in six years and one week,” Pelosi said, adding that she tells pro-lifers, “When you have five children in six years, then we will talk about it.”
“That was right for me, it’s not for me to say whats for somebody else,” Pelosi said. “Nor is it right for you, nor is it right for the Supreme Court. This has been a precedent of the court that should be upheld by the court.”
The California Democrat said that she respects people’s opinions about how they see the law in their personal lives, but then criticized pro-life Americans as “people who don’t believe in governance.”
“They don’t believe in government protecting the environment, they don’t believe in the government protecting people’s voting rights, but they’re really big-time government in your bedroom,” she said. “Whether it’s a woman’s right to choose, LGBTQ, whatever it is. All of a sudden, there they are.”
The abortion issue “isn’t about what is your religious belief,” Pelosi said.
“This really gets me burned up, in case you didn’t notice, because, again, I’m very Catholic – devout, practicing, all of that,” she said.
“They would like to throw me out, but I’m not going,” she joked, “because I don’t want to make their day.”
WATCH:
Pro-abortion House Speaker @SpeakerPelosi calls herself a "devout, practicing" Catholic as she discusses the importance of protecting abortion and Roe v. Wade, jokes that "they would like to throw me out, but I’m not going – because I don’t want to make their day." pic.twitter.com/dWDB3HyvFM
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) March 23, 2022
Pelosi has been repeatedly criticized in the past for touting her Catholicism in connection to her pro-abortion stances, though Catholic doctrine teaches that abortion is “a crime against human life.”
In a May 2021 interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone shared that he has had “conversations” with Pelosi about abstaining from receiving Holy Communion at mass as a pro-abortion Catholic.
WATCH:
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone @ArchCordileone:
"It's not possible to be a Catholic with a properly formed conscious in good standing and favor an evil such as abortion." pic.twitter.com/EuKiQXDutl
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 12, 2021
“She knows that I stand by Church teaching, and I know she’s respectful enough not to do anything so provocative,” the archbishop said.
“You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings. The answer to crisis pregnancies is not violence but love, for both mother and child,” Cordileone said on another occasion.
Discussing whether Catholic priests have ever given her any “difficulties” about receiving communion, Pelosi described herself in 2018 as a “regular communicant.”
“I think some of it is regional,” she said in a 2018 interview. “It depends on the bishop in a certain region. Fortunately, for me it has not — Communion has not been withheld and I’m a regular communicant so that would be a severe blow to me if that were the case.”
Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
President Joe Biden has also been repeatedly criticized for embracing abortion as a Catholic. Media, lawmakers, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki describe him as a “devout Catholic” when discussing his abortion stances without noting his divergence from Catholic teaching.
Though he has frequently referenced his Catholic faith throughout his political career, Biden heads a pro-abortion administration in which radical legislation, like the Equality Act and the Women’s Health Protection Act, is championed. He has also called for Roe v. Wade, the monumental Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, to be enshrined into law.
REPORTER: "As a Catholic, why do you support abortion?"
BIDEN: "I don't want to get in a debate with you on theology, but you know…I'm not going to make a judgement for other people."
REPORTER: "But you're Catholic!" pic.twitter.com/KR7njW1cW9
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 2, 2022