U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos compared the “moral evil” of owning slaves to making the choice to have an abortion at a Wednesday night Colorado Christian University president’s dinner held in Washington, D.C.

The Colorado Times Recorder, which first reported on DeVos’ speech at the Museum of the Bible, quoting her saying: “(Former President Abraham Lincoln) too contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day. They suggested that a state’s choice to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it. Well, President Lincoln reminded those pro-choicers that is a vast portion of the American people that do not look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast moral evil.”

DeVos’ comments have been met with outrage, including from Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) who tweeted: “As a Black woman & the Chair of the abortion access task force, I invite you to come by the Hill and say this to my face. Would welcome the opportunity to educate you.”

Dear Betsy, As a Black woman & the Chair of the abortion access task force, I invite you to come by the Hill and say this to my face. Would welcome the opportunity to educate you. Regards,

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley https://t.co/Yx2EToUdLI — Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) January 24, 2020

Colorado Christian University is a private, interdenominational college based in Lakewood.

CCU officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the speech.

Karen Middleton, president of Colorado’s reproductive rights organization Cobalt, said pro-choice advocates have heard similar statements at anti-abortion bill hearings in Colorado.

“To compare the brutal enslavement of African Americans to a woman’s constitutionally protected right to control her own body is wrong, no matter where or when it is said,” Middleton wrote in a statement to The Denver Post. “We hope that future discussions in our state will not include such inappropriate political language, and that Secretary DeVos would stop using it.”

In addition to DeVos’ abortion comments, the U.S. Education Secretary also touched on the recent oral arguments made to the Supreme Court about whether states can hold back taxpayer dollars from religious institution’s aid, Title IX and charter schools, the Times Recorder reported.

On Friday, the annual March for Life rally — a gathering of antiabortion demonstrators marching through the nation’s capital to mark the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision — kicked off with President Trump being the first president to speak at the event in person.