Nancy Pelosi’s Tortured Attempt to Reconcile Abortion and Catholic Teaching Draws to a Close

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California announced on Thursday plans to retire from Congress at the end of her current term in Jan. 2027.

At 85 years old, Rep. Pelosi has represented San Francisco for over 37 years. She holds the distinction of being the only female Speaker of the House.

Sadly, Pelosi is also known for trying to repeatedly square and reconcile her Catholic faith with her fervent support of abortion. Even more perplexing, over her many years in Washington, D.C., she’s actually cited her faith as something of a motivating factor for supporting the unfettered killing of innocent pre-born children.

The official Catechism of the Catholic Church states,

“Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.”

Despite that clarity of position, Pelosi has often suggested that since she had “five children in six years” she was somehow inoculated from running afoul of her church’s official teaching.

On NBC’s Meet the Press in 2008, Pelosi was asked when life begins.

“I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition….  St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know,” she answered.

Only we do know. Her own church has preached that life begins at conception.

“As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics,” she said rather incoherently after Congress attempted to pass a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks in 2013.

Three years later, when a reporter asked her about her continued support for late-term abortion, she responded,

“Let me say this; I’m a Catholic, a devout, practicing Catholic. I take great comfort in my faith, come from a very Catholic family, largely pro-life. I’ve had five children and the day my fifth child was born, my oldest turned 6, so I’m with the program in terms of the Catholic Church. However, if there’s one issue that really — I try to be dispassionate about how we find solutions — if there’s one issue that really is almost inflaming to women, is when politicians say we will influence the size and timing of your family; we will decide what is right for you.”

Shortly before the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, Pelosi once again invoked her faith when discussing the case before the High Court,

“And I say this as a practicing, devout Catholic: five children in six years and one week,” she added. “I don’t disrespect people’s views and how they want to live their lives. But I don’t think that it’s up to the Donald Trump appointees on the court or any politicians to make that decision for women. And I just do — I will just say what I have been saying for decades. Understand this. This is not just about terminating a pregnancy. This is about contraception, family planning.”

Only it has been about abortion and the radical, maniacal obsession of so many with making it legal to kill the most innocent.

Nancy Pelosi’s tortured attempts over the years to reconcile the Catholic Church’s clear and unambiguous teaching on the sanctity of life with her unwavering support for abortion lays bare the impossibility every believer faces in this world of shifting values.

“Cafeteria Christianity” brings to mind what Winston Churchill once said of Russia: “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” As Christians, we do not have the freedom to pick and choose commandments or other teachings in sacred Scripture according to personal whim or the political weather. If God says it, we must follow and adhere to it.

How grateful we should be for the clarity of God’s Word which provides believers with straightforward guidance on the pressing issues of our day, especially our call to defend and protect innocent babies still in the womb. Individuals placed in positions of authority, responsibility and opportunity to shape laws to protect these children have an obligation to act. Politicians, especially men and women who claim the Christian faith, but who support abortion are guilty of squandering that unique platform. 

Image from Getty.