NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- Nancy Pelosi Redux

Day 1,033 of CHOPE

We might add, today and any day Ms. Pelosi opens her mouth.

Nancy Pelosi is the queen of political whoredom. She is a deceiver. She lies (on many levels). She is a self-dealer. Ruthless in power and feckless in the minority, she is a smug, superior being, a person of privilege living large on the public weal. She is a hypocrite, a self-excuser. When convenient she is a politically correct shape-shifter. And she is stupid beyond belief -- willfully stupid -- stubbornly stupid -- fundamentally stupid -- for someone in a position of power. Which brings us round to today's big stupid.

Let's begin here.

NANCY PELOSI MISLEADS HEALTH CARE SUMMIT,
SAYS BILL HAS NO ABORTION FUNDING

WASHINGTON February 25, 2010 (LifeNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misled participants at the White House health care summit today by making the false statement that the Senate health care bill she, President Barack Obama and Democrats are pushing through Congress contains no abortion funding.

Pelosi’s comments came in response to pro-life House Republican Leader John Boehner telling President Barack Obama that Americans don’t want to be forced to finance abortions under the government-run health care bill. Ms. Pelosi:

I think it’s really important to note, though, and I want the record to show, because two statements were made here that were not factual in relationship to these bills. My colleague, Leader Boehner, the law of the land is there is no public funding of abortion and there is no public funding of abortion in these bills and I don’t want our listeners or viewers to get the wrong impression from what you said.

But those bills did have public funding for abortion.

Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, emailed LifeNews.com about Pelosi’s error:

Every version of the health care bill has contained multiple pro-abortion mandates and federal subsidies for abortion — except for the version that was fixed by adoption of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, over Speaker Pelosi’s objections. But President Obama and Senator Reid succeeded in keeping that fix out of the Senate bill — indeed, the Senate produced a final bill that is the most pro-abortion single piece of legislation to reach the floor of either house of Congress since Roe v. Wade.

Mr. Stupak was a fraud. And the Democrats passed Obamacare with the abortion funding provisions intact. Fast forward to the 2011 Republican House passing The Protect Life Act, which prohibits public funds, including tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, to be used for abortions or abortion coverage. This makes good in law what Ms. Pelosi asserted had been the intent of Obamacare all along. [Pause.] Except Ms. Pelosi's assertion was a lie. She is now outraged that Republicans have acted on her lie.

NANCY PELOSI: REPUBLICANS WANT
WOMEN TO DIE ON THE FLOOR

WASHINGTON October 13, 2011 (LifeNews.com) - Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took her pro-abortion rhetoric to a new level, today saying Republicans "want women to die on the floor" in expressing her opposition to a bill stopping taxpayer funding of abortions in Obamacare.

For a moment, I want to get back to what was asked about the issue on the floor today that Mr. Hoyer address. He made a point and I want to emphasize it. Under this bill, when the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health care providers do not have to intervene if this bill is passed. It’s just appalling.

The Protect Life Act has no provisions directing women to die on the floor. It reinstates conscience protections that exempt pro-life medical workers from complicity in abortions. In Ms. Pelosi's view conscience protections are wrong because conscience gums up the esprit de corps of complicity that makes abortions normative. It's hard to ease abortion into the national consciousness as a routine medical procedure if we're not all in this together.

Which brings us round to Ms. Pelosi's latest big stupid.

Pelosi recently was criticized for the way she characterized a bill to amend Republican-proposed conscience exemptions for health-care reform that allow providers to refuse to perform abortions. Pelosi called the measure, which passed last month with some help from Democrats, "savage," and said, "When the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health-care providers do not have to intervene, if this bill is passed. It’s just appalling."

In retrospect, does she think that assessment went too far? Not at all, she said: "They would" let women die on the floor, she said. "They would! Again, whatever their intention is, this is the effect."

Catholic health-care providers in particular have long said they’d have to go out of business without the conscience protections that Pelosi says amount to letting hospitals “say to a woman, 'I’m sorry you could die' if you don’t get an abortion." Those who dispute that characterization "may not like the language," she said, "but the truth is what I said. I’m a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it ... but they have this conscience thing" that she insists put women at physical risk, although Catholic providers strongly disagree.

Ms. Pelosi is not a devout Catholic. Her advocacy of abortion puts her out of communion with the Church. Ms. Pelosi exploits her résumé Catholicism as a nihil obstat for abortion. You see, if "devout Catholic" Nancy can support abortions -- well, there are no excuses in conscience to hold you back.

CHOPE.

What conscience thing?