During a press briefing on Capitol Hill Thursday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dodged a reporter’s question about whether a 15-week unborn baby constitutes a human being.
The reporter, Julia Johnson of the Catholic News Service, citing a Mississippi bill waiting to be heard by the Supreme Court that bans abortions after 15 weeks, asked, “Is an unborn baby at 15 weeks a human being?”
“Let me just say that I am a big supporter of Roe v. Wade,” Pelosi responded. “I am a mother of five children in six years. I think I have some standing on this issue as to respecting a woman’s right to choose.”
Johnson, not satisfied with Pelosi skirting around the simple question, repeated it, which Pelosi ignored before quickly selecting someone else to speak.
Pelosi’s response once again demonstrates the pro-abortion stance of the Democratic establishment. A person who is second in the U.S. presidential line of succession says that she is “a mother” to an answer to whether abortion takes a human life. Not only is it a false appeal to authority, but it sounds especially off-putting precisely because a mother, of all people, shouldn’t have a hard time answering the question.
Pelosi, certainly, does have some “standing on the issue.” As the standard-bearer for a party with an unnatural devotion to keeping abortion legal and available throughout all nine months of pregnancy, Pelosi could not even bring herself to say whether a 15-week-old child is a human being.
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BabyCenter describes a 15-week-old fetus: “Your baby is looking more like a little person, with eyelids, eyebrows, eyelashes, nails, hair, and well-defined fingers and toes. If you could see inside your womb, you’d catch your baby sucking a thumb, yawning, stretching and making faces!” At this time, “If you have an ultrasound coming up, you may be able to find out your baby’s sex if you don’t know already.” Also, “baby’s legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs.” “Your active baby is moving constantly, though you can’t feel it yet,” says the site.
Pelosi’s recent comments are reminiscent of the other times she dodged relevant and reasonable questions about her position on abortion.
In 2015, she was asked by CNS News’s Sam Dorman, “Is an unborn baby with a human heart and human liver a human being?” Dorman also asked her under what species she would classify a “fetus.” Pelosi only stated she was a Catholic and a mother and concluded by saying she did “not intend” to answer his “ideological” question.
Pelosi’s reference to her Catholic faith paired with pro-abortion views was inappropriate, according Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone from Pelosi’s home city San Francisco, who suggested lawmakers who support abortion should refrain from Holy Communion.
The reporter’s question on Thursday came not long after the Supreme Court agreed to review the Mississippi Gestational Age Act, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which was determined to be the cutoff for fetal viability. The law makes exceptions for a “medical emergency or in case of a severe fetal abnormality.”
If the Mississippi law is upheld by the Supreme Court, it will set a new precedent allowing states to enact abortion bans before a pregnancy is considered “viable.” This would be a huge step in protecting the lives of the unborn across the country.
In a separate case, Mississippi also is fighting in court to defend its heartbeat law, which would protect almost all unborn babies from abortions in the state.
Nancy Pelosi’s statement also comes after congressional Democrats reintroduced a bill, titled the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” that would invalidate nearly all state-level restrictions on abortion, including existing laws limiting late-term abortions. This federal action would also nullify a slew of measures in Republican-run states such as laws mandating 24-hour waiting periods before an abortion is performed, informed-consent laws, prohibitions on sex-selective abortions, and many health and safety regulations.
Another “devout Catholic,” President Joe Biden, has expanded abortion funding far beyond the level of any previous administration. He has made at least $479.9 billion available in funds to subsidize abortion and abortion businesses — more than 19 times the level set under President Obama, and reversed all pro-life policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
