One of the most common accusations directed at conservatives is that you cannot be both pro-life and supportive of the death penalty. If life is sacred, as anti-death penalty voters argue, it must be protected in all circumstances — from the womb to the prison cell.
But pro-death penalty conservatives believe that argument collapses a valuable moral distinction in this debate: the difference between innocent lives and chosen violence.
Within pro-life conservative thought, opposing abortion is about protecting an innocent life that has done nothing, chosen nothing and harmed no one. Children in the womb have not forfeited their humanity or right to exist. Ending their lives is not justice. Abortion is the deliberate destruction of someone defenseless.
The death penalty, by contrast, is not about innocence. It’s about accountability for irreversible harm. Murder is not a private failing or a mistake able to be undone; it’s a willful act of permanently destroying another human being. As pro-life conservatives argue, treating the death penalty as morally equivalent to abortion ignores the reality of one life being taken without cause, while the other is taken in response to their criminal actions.
Many conservative objections to the death penalty lean heavily on grace. Grace is central to Christian teaching. But grace does not mean there’s no punishment. Christianity does not teach that forgiveness cancels out consequences. It teaches that both can exist simultaneously.
Pro-death penalty conservatives believe Scripture draws a clear line between personal mercy and public justice. Christians are called to forgive, but governments are given the authority to punish evil to preserve order and affirm the value of life.
This authority is not treated as cruelty or moral failure but as a necessary responsibility. Without consequences for the most severe crimes, justice becomes hollow, and violence is left unanswered.
Conservative influencer Allie Beth Stuckey has framed the issue this way: Support for the death penalty flows from the same belief that drives opposition to abortion — a commitment to preserving innocent life. The argument is not for all life to be treated identically but that innocence matters. Ending the life of a child in the womb and punishing someone who has deliberately taken a life are morally distinct acts, even if they both involve death.
Pro-death penalty conservatives believe the purpose of capital punishment is not solely about mercy but about acknowledging that some acts substantially disrupt moral order. When murder is treated as something that can always be absorbed without final consequence, the seriousness of taking a life is debased rather than affirmed.
Contact Alannah Peters at apeters@alligator.org. Follow her on X @alannahjp777.
Alannah Peters is a junior majoring in journalism and minoring in public relations. In her spare time, she can be found trying new coffee shops with friends, traveling the U.S. or going on hot girl walks at Lake Alice.
