Hey welcome back. I want to talk about something you may not have heard much about in the past
because we've heard opponents of Roe v. Wade say that the landmark ruling has distorted
American politics for 50 years. And they're right. But they're the ones mostly responsible
by dragging the politics of abortion up into the altar of the church.
Here's something I bet you didn't know.
My church, the Southern Baptist Church,
was effectively pro-choice until 1980.
This wasn't about Jesus, it was about politics.
That was the rise of the moral majority in 1980,
bringing abortion politics into the pews
of Republican-leaning churches.
Now, the Catholic Church, mind you, has focused on abortion a bit longer.
But how disconcerting that religious leaders in that church would deny communion to faithful
members of their congregation over a political issue.
Jesus never once mentioned in the Gospels, despite the fact that abortion
was both a political and philosophical issue in ancient Greece and in Rome and
when Jesus was alive.
Now, Jesus did address most other things that touch our lives, and he told his disciples
in Matthew 25 that we would be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven if we gave water to
the thirsty, fed the hungry, clothed the poor, and brought hope to the hopeless.
We were to lead with forgiveness and love.
So, how distressing that a religious leader would bar from communion a congregant who
has spent her life supporting politics that focuses really on those truly disadvantaged.
Let's bring in now the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
She joins us now.
Madam Speaker, I've known you for at least three decades, and we haven't talked about
your faith publicly.
We certainly have in a lot of private conversations because it means so much to you.
The last time was when you were talking about your father and I said...
I bet you wish your father were here to see you.
And you said, he is here.
He is here.
He is with me.
I know exactly what my dad's watching, and he's in heaven.
I'm just curious, what do you say to Catholics who see what's happening to you in San Francisco
and wonders why you have an archbishop taking a step like this?
Well, good morning, Joe. Thank you. I guess we do go back a long way when you were new young member of Congress and the
What's so sad about it, and as you're speaking, I'm thinking of some of the discussions I've
had with other members of Congress over time, and what is important for women to know and
families to know, that this is not just about terminating a pregnancy.
So these same people are against contraception, family planning, in vitro fertilization, it's
a
It's a blanket thing, and they use abortion as the front man for it while they try to
undo so much.
That's what they tried to do in the Affordable Care Act, which didn't have anything about
terminating an abortion, a pregnancy.
So let's just say that I wonder about death penalty, which I am opposed to.
So is the church, but they take no action against people.
who may not share their view.
Thank you for referencing the Gospel of Matthew,
which is sort of the agenda of the Church
that is rejected by many who side with them
on terminating a pregnancy.
So we just have to be prayerful.
We have to be respectful.
I come from a largely pro-life Italian-American Catholic
family, so I respect people's views
about that, but I don't respect us foisting it on to others.
Now, our Archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights, too.
In fact, he led the way in some of the initiatives, an initiative on the ballot in California.
So this decision taking us to privacy and precedent is very dangerous in the lives of
so many of the American people.
And again, not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew.
I'm sorry, your religion has been brought into this, let's turn to the political side
of this, and I'm concerned how we preserve all of our rights as women, given the fact
that this leaked draft opinion looks to overturn
The Senate passed a piece of legislation — or the Senate voted on a piece of legislation
that looked to expand abortion rights.
Was that a productive gesture?
What do you think Democrats should do?
toward the midterms to really campaign clearly on this issue.
Well, I don't think they expanded abortion rights.
What they did was to enshrine Roe v. Wade into the law.
Enshrine Roe v. Wade into the law.
And that's what we've done in the house.
We did it right after the horrible decision in Texas
to have vigilantes follow women around, all that.
So.
That's what that does, and it was unfortunate that some of the Republicans who claimed to be pro-choice,
pro the decision, we'd call it a decision of the woman, of the family, with her God, her doctor, her family,
make those decisions, but no, I think that it was really important.
I think it was most unfortunate that those who profess to support a woman's decision in this regard found that to be too much, because that was Roe v. Wade.
That's the enshrinement of Roe v. Wade.
So in terms of, to your larger question,
I think you've heard me say before President Lincoln said public sentiment is everything.
With it you can accomplish almost anything without it practically nothing.
But for public sentiment to weigh in people have to know.
So women have to know how pervasive this is.
I mean as a Catholic I tried to talk some of my
colleagues, Republican colleagues, some years ago into supporting what the Catholic Church
was asking us to do for global family planning, natural family planning, which our law allows
to happen.
and they said we're not for family planning domestically or globally.
We're against it.
Now that was family planning.
That wasn't anything beyond that.
So understand what is at risk here.
And again, I think it's very insulting to women to have their
ability to make their own decision hampered by politics.
This should never have been politicized.
It should never have been politicized.
Joe described it perfectly with a transition from where we were to where we are now.
And you know what, it's also a cover for a lot of other things that the far right wants to accomplish.
That's what I was, what will it mean if and when it's overturned?
And is this an issue that could galvanize voters on both sides of the aisle?
Yes, I think so.
We always are running on kitchen table issues.
Right.
And there's a lot of them now.
Right.
And how do people pay for food, for rent, for education, for prescription drugs and
all of that?
I hope we can talk about that.
All of us, but we also know that our democracy is at stake,
what they're doing to voter suppression, in voter suppressing and also in the nullification of elections.
But that doesn't really hit home as much as the kitchen table issues do,
and a woman's decision is a kitchen table.
So they have now taken freedom, which is on the ballot.
home. And they tell me that in Georgia, that the women are really
they're galvanizing the galvanized galvanizes where does it I thought but
it's even more than that hmm okay