For 40 years (since the Second Vatican Council), the church has been teaching Catholics moral relativism -- all religions are good; you can do just about anything you want; don't worry about sin, just be happy; etc.
Now, two generations have been raised on this claptrap -- and yet, people can't figure out why the churches are empty or why these nominal Catholics no longer pay heed to Church teachings.
Lest anyone get the wrong impression here, "The Church" has not changed Her teachings to embrace moral relativism. On the particular subject of abortion, the actual Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes, the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) said this:
"Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes."
Canon Law still provides for excommunication latae sentenciae (automatically) in cases of deliberate abortion.
So the official teaching of the Church on this matter has not, and will not, change. What changed (and this is hard to explain, and perplexing) is a kind of pastoral style which emphasizes "dialogue" and "sensitivity" to a morally vitiating and exaggerated degree. There have been "Church Laws" against abortion, but precious little enforcement for more than a generation.
The "pastoral style" of false compassion, of corrupt hierarchs ignoring their plain duty, results in malformed consciences, of which the scandalous voting behavior of Catholics and the stated opinions of Madame Pelosi are only the most prominent evidence.
Time for us lay people to step in and enforce a little "sensus fidelium." There's actually nothing wrong with the Catholic Church when the Catholic Church acts Catholic.