Not practicing what you preach

RICHARD A. SOKERKA

President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), both professing to be “devout Catholics,” have been in lockstep with other Democrats in expanding abortion access this year and are now trying to force taxpayers to pay for abor­tions by abandoning the Hyde Amendment.

A draft spending bill recently approved by the House Appropriations Committee would allow for federal funding of elective abortions in Medicaid. It excludes the Hyde Amendment, a federal policy, which since 1976 prohibits funding of most abortions in Medicaid.

Speaking last week in the U.S. Capitol, Pelosi said that she supported a repeal of the Hyde Amendment because it is “an issue of health, of many women in America, especially those in lower-income situations and in different states. And it is something that has been a priority for many of us for a long time.”

Pelosi also highlighted her faith, saying that as “a ‘devout Catholic’ and mother of five in six years, I feel that God blessed my husband and me with our beautiful family, five children in six years almost to the day.” She added that she would not presume to make decisions for other women, regarding their families and abortion. “It’s not up to me to dictate that that’s what other people should do, and it is an issue of fairness and justice for poorer women in our country.”

But Pelosi does not practice what she preaches if she is the “devout Catholic” she claims to be. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Pelosi’s home diocese, quickly criticized her after she cited her Catholic faith while justifying the Democrats’ push to force taxpayers to fund abortions.

“Let me repeat: no one can claim to be a ‘devout Catholic’ and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “The right to life is a fundamental — the most fundamental — human right, and Catholics do not oppose fundamental human rights.”

The archbishop also said that for Pelosi “to use the smokescreen of abortion as an issue of health and fairness to poor women is the epitome of hypocrisy: what about the health of the baby being killed? What about giving poor women real choice, so they are supported in choosing life? This would give them fairness and equality to women of means, who can afford to bring a child into the world. It is people of faith who run pro-life crisis pregnancy clinics; they are the only ones who provide poor women life-giving alternatives to having their babies killed in their wombs.” He added, “I cannot be prouder of my fellow Catholics who are so prominent in providing this vital service. To them, I say: you are the ones worthy to call yourselves ‘devout Catholics!’”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called on lawmakers to preserve the Hyde Amendment and is circulating a petition in support of the pro-life policy that currently has more than 130,000 signatures.

In a previous statement, Archbishop Cordileone had said, “No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion. Our land is soaked with the blood of the innocent, and it must stop.”

St. Augustine said, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”

Unfortunately, that’s how President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and the 60 House Democrats, including New Jerseyans, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Rep. Frank Pallone, and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., who signed a letter to the U.S. Bishops telling them not to “weaponize the Eucharist” look at the Gospel.