Who’s behind the public policies that have led to millions dead from abortion?
By R.J. Grace
When the killing of human beings becomes a pre-meditated methodical policy -- put forward as a public good -- massive slaughter results, and can be called a “holocaust.”
History puts a face on leaders who considered mass murder a political “good” -- leaders like Adolph Hitler of Germany, Mehmet Talaat of Turkey, Pol Pot of Cambodia, Mao of China and Joseph Stalin of Russia.
But what about American leaders responsible for our own ongoing holocaust: abortion? History has yet to put a face to them, but those who value the sanctity of human life are obligated to ferret them out and hold them responsible.
This is the fourth in California Catholic Daily’s ongoing series, “Faces of the American Holocaust,” in which we put faces to those behind the mass murder of innocents in the U.S.
NANCY PELOSI
Nancy Patricia Pelosi (née D’Alessandro) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 1940, the last child of six and the only daughter. She grew up in a Roman Catholic neighborhood and attended the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic high school, and Trinity College, a liberal arts Catholic college for women. Her parents were strict Catholics. In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Pelosi said that her mother would have loved for her to become a nun -- but she wasn’t interested. She would have rather become a priest: “I didn’t think I wanted to be a nun, but I thought I might want to be a priest because there seemed to be a little more power there, a little more discretion over what was going on in the parish.”While working in Washington, D.C., she married a Georgetown graduate, California native Paul Frank Pelosi, whom she had met while in college. They eventually moved, along with their five children, first to New York, and then, in 1969, to San Francisco. She was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 5th (now 8th) congressional district on June 02, 1987 -- a seat she has held since.
Currently Pelosi serves as the Democratic House Minority Leader. She has a 100% approval rating from the radical pro-abortion group NARAL, and is well known for her consistently antagonistic stance against the pro-life movement. While her pro-abortion activities have intensified over the past year or two, she has a long history of fighting to defeat pro-life measures and to advance abortion as a good thing.
2012
In a Feb. 22 interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, Pelosi characterized opposition from religious leaders to the Obama Administration’s contraception mandate as nothing more than a group of men who oppose women’s healthcare interfering in a family’s “…important decisions [which should be made] together with their doctor, with their God.”
In a Feb. 20 speech at Texas A&M University, Pelosi made the convoluted claim that the Catholic Church has not enforced its teaching on birth control, but now wants the federal government and private insurance companies to enforce the teaching for it.
On Feb. 16, The Weekly Standard reported, in answer to a reporter’s question, “Should the Catholic Church… be required to pay for morning-after pills and birth control if they find them morally objectionable?” Pelosi replied, “Yes.”
2011
In a Nov. 17, 2011 interview with The Washington Post, Pelosi dismissed the protection of the freedom of religion guaranteed by the first amendment by referring to objections by the Catholic Church to abortion as “this conscience thing.” She adamantly opposed a bill that allowed health providers to refuse to provide abortions on conscience grounds, claiming that the measure would allow Catholic healthcare providers to “let women die on the floor.”
In February of 2011, Pelosi began a campaign to rally the public against two bills before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution of the House Judiciary Committee, H.R. 3 (No Tax Payer Funding for Abortion Act) and H.R. 358 (the Protect Life Act). She opposed the bills even though U.S. bishops expressed strong support for them.
Also in February of 2011, the House passed an amendment that prohibited the use of federal funds for Planned Parenthood. Pelosi voted against the amendment.
2010
On April 29, 2010, Pelosi was a featured speaker at the 25th anniversary celebration of the pro- abortion political action committee Emily’s List. The purpose of Emily’s List is to elect “pro-choice” women candidates to political office.
In October of 2010, the House passed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. Pelosi voted against it.
2009
Pelosi is the mother of five children and has five grandchildren, yet in a Jan. 25, 2009 interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolus, she made the argument that contraception and abortion stimulates the economy by reducing the number of children who will need education, healthcare and other state and federal services.
On Feb. 8, 2009, Pelosi had a meeting with San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer to discuss her pro-abortion politics. The archbishop requested the meeting following a firestorm of criticism of Pelosi, who, describing herself as “an ardent, practicing Catholic,” told an audience of millions on a nationally televised Aug. 24, 2008 news program that Church teaching on when human life begins is unclear.Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly confirmed that the meeting took place, but noted that Pelosi was not changing her pro-abortion stance as a result.
2008
The August 2008 interview that led to the request from Pelosi’s archbishop for a private meeting was with Tom Brokaw on Meet The Press. At that time she made the claim that the doctors of the Church had been unable to determine that life begins at conception.
The same year, on Aug. 3, in an interview with Brian Lamb at CSPAN’s “Q&A” program, Pelosi was asked if her Church was giving her any difficulties about receiving communion, given that she had such a history of promoting abortion and contraception. “Not really”, she replied. “It depends on the bishop in a certain region.”
2006
Pelosi voted against the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2006, which was meant to require abortion providers who perform an abortion of a 20-week or older child to tell the mother how old the child is and obtain her signature.
2003
In June of 2003, the House passed the Partial Born Abortion Ban Act, which contained an exception in cases where it was necessary to save the life of the mother. Pelosi voted against it, but it never reached the Senate for a vote.
2002
In September of 2002, the House passed the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2002, which was to prohibit the federal government and any state or local government receiving federal funds, to discriminate against any healthcare agency that refused to administer any abortion inducing drugs or procedures. Pelosi voted against the bill.
