Nancy Pelosi took office this week as Speaker of the House, the most powerful position in the legislative branch of government . She is a strong backer of abortion rights, with a 100% pro-choice voting record. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is encouraged by the prospects for positive family planning, sexuality education, and prevention legislation, both domestic and international. Equally important, Pelosi can be expected to put the brakes on the Republican strategy of chipping away at abortion rights.

The San Francisco Democrat is a pragmatic and effective politician, with an eye to bigger Democratic wins in 2008. Washington observers think she will stick to her stated intention of governing from the middle, avoiding divisive issues and seeking unity on bread-and-butter matters that have broad support among Democrats. Abortion has become one of those divisive issues for the party, as Democrats have begun a noticable shift from their pro-choice position, generally to court traditionally Republican voters. How far the Democratic Party is willing to go to accommodate anti-abortion rights views remains to be seen. An early test will be how pro-life Democrats vote on legislation to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

As a staunch Roman Catholic, Pelosi has been a target of the most extreme anti-choice elements but has remained committed to a woman’s right to choose. During a floor debate on abortion in 1998, she said:

“I will say as a Catholic that I have done some of my own research on this…St. Augustine himself when he was asked would a fetus before 3 months…go to the judgment day and be resurrected into heaven as a person, he said, ‘No, because before 3 months, it isn’t a person.’ They made him a saint. He is a saint of the church. He has a different view from some of my colleagues on when life begins. We do not know. It is a mystery.”

Most recently, she responded to a question about her views by saying:

“To me it isn’t even a question. God has given us a free will. We’re all responsible for our actions. If you don’t want an abortion, you don’t believe in it, [then] don’t have one. But don’t tell somebody else what they can do in terms of honoring their responsibilities. My family is very pro-life. They’re not fanatics and they’re not activists. I think they’d like it if I were not so vocally pro-choice. (Newsweek, Oct. 23, 2006)