In the United States, during 2024, only 25 executions of convicted criminals were carried out, while in the same period more than 1,140,000 abortions were performed thanks to the legal framework promoted by Senator Dick Durbin. The numerical disproportion is overwhelming: for every criminal executed under the weight of the law, 45,600 unborn children were deprived of life in their mothers’ wombs. This comparison allows us to understand the different magnitude of both phenomena and poses an unavoidable moral dilemma for those who uphold the defense of life.
The crimes committed by those executed in 2024 reflect acts of extreme brutality. Among them are serial killers, rapists, and child kidnappers. The case of Christopher Collings, executed in Missouri, is illustrative: he kidnapped, abused, and strangled a nine-year-old girl, his own step-niece. Another convict in Texas was executed for torturing and killing his partner’s 13-month-old daughter. These crimes, committed with cruelty and total disregard for human life, are ultimately what led those 25 men to face the death penalty.
In contrast, abortion deprives innocent and defenseless human beings of life. Studies in the United States indicate that nearly 90% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted after prenatal diagnosis. Although exact figures for late-term abortions in the U.S. are not always public, it is known that thousands of abortions are performed each year after the 21st week of gestation, even of already viable children.
In response to a question about the controversial ecclesiastical award to the pro-abortion Senator Durbin, Pope Leo XIV equated the death penalty with abortion in Castel Gandolfo, placing them on the same ethical evaluation plane. However, reality shows that the disproportion is so overwhelming that it is unacceptable to confuse both situations. In one case, we talk about criminals responsible for atrocious murders and judged by courts; in the other, about innocent human lives eliminated en masse and, many times, simply due to the presence of a disability. Pretending to put them on the same level means blurring the moral urgency represented by the culture of death.
Therefore, to claim that one cannot be “pro-life” and accept the death penalty is a dangerous simplification that ignores reality. The defense of life requires recognizing the concrete magnitude of each evil. The death penalty, although debatable and increasingly less applied, affects an infinitesimal number of guilty criminals with abominable crimes; abortion, on the other hand, ends the lives of more than a million innocents each year in the United States alone. A Church committed to human dignity must focus its attention on the greatest and most silenced tragedy of our time: the legalized massacre of the weakest and most defenseless.