As a conservative, I try to understand opposing views as much as possible. Many of my friends are liberal, and we have enlightening conversations about politics. However, I have one question about liberals that has always perturbed me: why do they think a woman should be allowed to abort an innocent, unborn child when they do not think courts should be able to give murderers the death penalty?
According to roevwade.org, over 36.5 million abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973. Patricia Anstett of the Free Press found in 2003 that 1.3 million U.S. abortions were performed in 2000 and 1 in 5 pregnancies end in abortion.
When abortions can cost several hundred dollars, consider how much Americans spend on abortions every year.
Alarming? Not quite, considering the reasons some pro-choicers give for having abortions. I support abortions when doctors find out the baby will be severely mentally handicapped, or when the woman was raped. But it is inexcusable that some women have abortions because they do not feel prepared to raise a child.
Too often when I hear about abortion, the women who’ve had one give illogical excuses: they would not be able to support the child on a low income; they did not want the rest of their lives to be ruined when they got pregnant in their teens; they were not emotionally mature enough to care for a child when they got pregnant; it would have been too traumatic to birth the baby and then give it up for adoption.
Tell anyone who was adopted that their birthmother had the right to choose abortion for one of those reasons.
And to claim it is too heartbreaking for one to give up a child? The child is the one at stake. It is impeccably arrogant to deny one’s child the chance at life for one’s own well-being.
While liberals apparently do not understand the audacity of aborting children, they do not support the death penalty, even when it is punishment for a murderer. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 948 executions since 1976. Needless to say, abortion equals a greater loss of life than the death penalty.
As with abortion, pro-choicers give inconclusive arguments to defend their stance on the death penalty. Most killers should not receive mercy, and they deserve the same fate as their victims. Liberals give excuses against the death penalty that are not nearly as valuable as an innocent life — a death penalty case costs too much; more than a life sentence.
Tell those reasons to a parent whose child was kidnapped, raped and murdered. Again, it is ridiculous to worry about paying for a death penalty case when the real concern should be for the victim and their family. The Death Penalty Information Center reported that in most cases it does indeed exceed the cost of life imprisonment.
But the money is not the focus here, because no amount of money could replace a slain victim. Besides, if we can spend hundreds of millions each year to deny 1.3 million babies’ lives, why can’t we spend major bucks to end 984 murderer’s lives in 29 years?
While executing murderers does not bring victims back, it does bring justice, which is what victims’ families want. And when a murderer gets life in prison, there is always a chance for them to beat the system and escape to kill again.
One thing that really bothers me is pro-choicers sometimes compare conservatives with Hitler for supporting the death penalty. Hitler killed innocent people, and if he lived in America today he’d be the first person conservatives would want on death row.
The reasons pro-choicers give for these cases are completely ignorant of the people affected most — the baby who is denied a chance at life through abortion and killed for no reason. I will believe this until liberals can give strong reasons why they support abortion rights but not the death penalty.
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