SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has loudly denounced the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling on Friday that overturned two decisions barring states from banning abortion, just days after an anti-abortion Democrat she backed officially beat a pro-abortion rights challenger in a primary election.
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The San Francisco Democrat was one of many Bay Area and California lawmakers to strongly criticize the Supreme Court's landmark decision, which cast aside the precedent set in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling and reaffirmed in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision 19 years later. It cleared the way for a number of states to ban abortions, some of which had "trigger" laws on the books set to go into effect once the Roe and Casey decisions were overturned.
Pelosi warned in a statement on Friday that congressional "Republicans are plotting a nationwide abortion ban" and implored donors to "DEFEAT every anti-choice Republican that made this happen" in a fundraising email sent not long after the decision.
Yet just this week, Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar – the only House Democrat to vote against the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, which passed the chamber along mostly partisan lines last year and has stalled in the Senate – narrowly emerged victorious against primary challenger Jessica Cisneros.
Cuellar, after a recount, defeated Cisneros – an attorney who strongly advocated for abortion rights on the campaign trail – by 289 votes. Pelosi publicly endorsed Cuellar in May, and her campaign committee gave $4,000 to Cuellar last December. She was one of at least 18 Democratic incumbents to donate to Cuellar, according to Sludge.
"I support my incumbents," Pelosi said in March (via the Texas Tribune). "I support every one of them, from right to left. That is what I do."
A Pelosi spokesperson didn't respond to KCBS Radio's emailed request for comment on Friday regarding her support of Cuellar in light of the Supreme Court's ruling earlier that day. Pelosi's press office previously didn't respond to KCBS Radio’s request for comment last month, in the aftermath of Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion that was largely unchanged from Friday's decision.
Following last month's leak, Cuellar said in a statement said his Catholic faith would "not allow me to support a ruling that would criminalize teenage victims of rape and incest."
"The same faith will not allow me to support a ruling that would make a mother choose between her life and her child's," he said in the statement.
As of press time, Cuellar had not issued a statement following the ruling. Spokespeople with Cuellar’s office didn't respond to KCBS Radio's request for comment – including a question about whether Cuellar would support House Republicans' mooted 15-week abortion ban if they regain control of the chamber in November – prior to publication.
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