Top US Democrat has refused to join abortion debate.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) will not be able to take holy communion in the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi until she “publicly repudiates” her pro-abortion stance, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone stated on Friday.

Pelosi, a devout Roman Catholic, urged Americans to vote for Democrats in order to legalise abortion after a leaked Supreme Court judgement cast doubt on the procedure.

“After numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, and the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that the point has come in which I must make a public declaration that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until she publicly repudiate her support for abortion ‘rights’ and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance,” Cordileone wrote in a letter addressed to the Catholic faithful.

On Thursday, the archbishop informed Pelosi, who is a member of his archdiocese, of the decision. She has made no public comments as of Friday afternoon. In a 2008 interview, she characterised herself as a “regular communicant” who claimed being refused communion would be “a serious blow.”

Pelosi may still receive communion in Washington, DC, and elsewhere, according to Cordileone’s regulations, which apply solely to his archdiocese. He said the decision was made in accordance with church law, which prohibits individuals “obstinately persisting in obvious grave sin” from receiving communion.

Telling his clergy that Pelosi has refused to meet with him or answer his letters, Archbishop Cordileone said that her “resistance to pastoral counsel has gone on for too long,” and there was “nothing more that can be done at this point to help the Speaker understand the seriousness of the evil her advocacy for abortion is perpetrating and the scandal she is causing.”

Abortion is considered a sin by the Roman Catholic Church. It is now lawful in the United States thanks to a 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, which the nation’s top court may soon reverse, according to a draught opinion leaked to the press earlier this month.

Pelosi portrayed herself as “very Catholic, devoted, practising, all of that” and claimed the church “would want to kick me out” during a rally in Texas in March, but said the court should not overturn Roe v. Wade.