I support freedom of abortion because I believe that whether or not the fetus is a ‘human life’ or a ‘person’ or whatever you want to call it, it has no right to drain resources from a woman against her will.
I oppose the death penalty because the justice system is fallible, and when something goes wrong, you can get a life sentence overturned, but not an execution.
I would support giving convicts a choice between life sentence and execution, though, because I don’t think punishment for the sake of making someone suffer is a legitimate goal of the justice system. If he’d rather die than spend the rest of his life in a cell, why not let him do that? He’s off the street either way.
I’d like also to chime in that I really don’t see abortion as anything but birth control. I don’t see it as regrettable or horrible or contemptible. I do see it as physically unpleasant, painful, and potentially humiliating.
Racekarl, I realize it may seem off-topic, but I was attempting to offer another response to the first post. Capital punishment, which I’m vehemently opposed to, is supposed to be just that. Abortion is, despite the insistence of some anti-abortion types, not a matter of punishment. Just attempting to illustrate another reason support for one and not the other doesn’t need rationalization - the two are different things used for different purposes, so supporting one doesn’t logically preclude the other.