House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was asked for her reaction to the Archbishop of San Francisco’s call on Catholics to “defeat” a bill that would guarantee abortion access.
A reporter mentioned the Women’s Health Protection Act during Pelosi’s press conference on Thursday, pointing out the “Archbishop of San Francisco warns the bill is nothing more than child sacrifice and he calls on Catholics to fast and pray to defeat this bill. You’re Catholic. Your reaction?”
Pelosi responded, “Yeah I’m Catholic. I come from a pro-life family, not active in that regard, different in their view of a woman’s right to choose than I am. In my right to choose, I have five children in six years and one week.”
She continued, “And I keep saying to people who say things like that, when you have five children… in six years and one day, we can talk about what business of any of us to tell anyone else to do.”
Pelosi explained she disagrees with the Archbishop of San Francisco “about who should decide this. I believe that God has given us a free will to honor our responsibilities.”
Watch part of Pelosi’s press briefing below:
REPORTER: "The Archbishop of San Francisco warns the bill is nothing more than child sacrifice and he calls on Catholics to fast and pray to defeat this bill. You're Catholic. Your reaction?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 23, 2021
PELOSI: "Yeah I'm Catholic. I come from a pro-life family, not active in that regard." pic.twitter.com/D5LbzIOyWS
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco released a statement earlier this week responding to the legislation.
“I therefore ask all Catholics in our country immediately to pray and fast for members of Congress to do the right thing and keep this atrocity from being enacted in the law,” he said.
Cordileone continued, “A child is not an object to be thrown away, and neither is a mother’s heart. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the answer to a woman in a crisis pregnancy is not violence but love. This is America. We can do better.”
According to The Hill, the act would protect a woman’s ability to seek access to an abortion as well as allowing health care providers to offer abortion services.
The White House endorsed the legislation following the Texas law banning all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said in a statement, “In the wake of Texas’ unprecedented attack, it has never been more important to codify this constitutional right and to strengthen health care access for all women, regardless of where they live.”