Pelosi says knows more about having babies than the Pope

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterated Thursday that she knows more about having babies than the Pope. 

"Republicans sometimes have said Nancy Pelosi thinks she knows more about having babies than the Pope. Yes, I do. I think any Pope would agree," Pelosi, a mother of five, said at a Capitol Hill news conference. 

Pelosi, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, made similar comments in 2015 but her latest remarks come as Democrats push to codify Roe v. Wade, the decades-old court ruling that provided a constitutional right to abortion until struck down last month by the Supreme Court. 

The California Democrat was recently denied communion in her home district over her support for abortion but she received it at the Vatican. 

Pelosi emphasized that Democratic lawmakers do not think the right to an abortion is negotiable. 

"It's respect, freedom, of reproductive health for women and it's not about politicians negotiating that away," she said.