J. Pharoah Doss: Abortions, executions and crusaders against murder

MARCELLUS WILLIAMS Charlie Kirk, a co-founder of Turning Point USA, a non-profit organization that promotes conservatism among high school and college students, recently debated a group of college students on whether abortion is murder. Any legal dictionary will define murder as the unlawful and intentional act of causing death to a living being. Killing, on the other hand, can be legal or illegal depending on the circumstances, and it may or may not involve intent to cause death. Kirk told the students that murder is the intentional taking of life that differs from killing, but he never clarified the distinction between killing and murder. By failing to define killing, Kirk allowed the students to believe that it’s an unintentional act like manslaughter. Kirk cleverly eliminated the argument that an abortion can be defined as killing because the procedure is intentional.& Kirk wanted the students to believe that killing is unintentional while abortions are intentional, implying that terminating a fetus is murder. Kirk encouraged the students to come to the pro-life conclusion that abortion is murder, and if murder is always prohibited, abortion should always be outlawed, except in circumstances of rape, incest, or to preserve the mother’s life. Kirk’s logic...