Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-abortion group claiming to be Catholic is accusing the nation’s Catholic bishops of playing politics by virtue of their condemnation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s misrepresenting Catholic teaching on abortion and the beginning of human life. Catholics for Choice says the bishops were wrong to release a factsheet correcting her.

Jon O'Brien, president of the pro-abortion group told LifeNews.com, that it is Catholic leaders who are wrong on abortion, not Pelosi.

He accused the Catholic bishops of a “desire to place themselves at the center of the political discussion on abortion” and not representing Catholic teachings or Catholics.

"It is simply not true that the Roman Catholic Church's position on abortion has remained unchanged for 2,000 years,” O’Brien said, pointing to subtle changes in wording from Catholic thinkers in centuries past in their condemnation of abortion.

O’Brien contends: “There is a big difference in 'rejecting abortion' or stating that it is 'gravely wrong,' as leaders in the early church did and the current situation where the bishops regard it as an 'intrinsically evil act that can never be morally right.'“

The Catholics for Choice leader claimed a majority of Catholic voters and parishioners do not fall in line with the Catholic bishops and the Church’s position against abortion.

He pointed to an internal poll the group conducted claiming about 70 percent of Catholics say that the views of Catholic bishops are unimportant to them in deciding for whom to vote and a similarly large proportion, 73 percent, saying they believe Catholic politicians are under no religious obligation to vote on issues the way the bishops recommend.

But Father Frank Pavone, the director of Priests for Life, talked with LifeNews.com previously and said the poll doesn't distinguish between practicing Catholics and Catholics in name only.

"Previous research into Catholic voting patterns, such as that done by Deal Hudson and others, shows a predictably significant difference when one surveys those who actually practice their faith and attend Mass," Pavone said. "Such voters tend to vote pro-life, increasingly vote Republican, and do want the moral guidance that is offered by the bishops in such documents as Living the Gospel of Life."

On life and death decisions like abortion, Father Pavone said the Catholic pro-life teachings are absolute.

“But on matters that violate fundamental human rights (like abortion and terrorism), there can be no wiggle room, whether one is Catholic or not," he explains. “Common sense tells us to elect public servants who know the difference between serving the public and killing the public."

In the fact sheet, the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities showed the Church teaching through the years.

“Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law,” it said.

“From earliest times, Christians sharply distinguished themselves from surrounding pagan cultures by rejecting abortion and infanticide,” it added.

Regarding the origins of human life, the Catholic bishops affirmed that “knowledge of human embryology was very limited until recent times.

”They said Catholic teaching never changed on the morality of abortion even though scientists didn’t confirm that human life begins at conception until 1827."

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