Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, recently landed herself in a social media debate over the death penalty.
It all started when Hawkins posted the following message on X on Feb. 24: “The death penalty is inconsistent with a pro-life worldview.”
“Even if you feel that the death penalty is justified in some circumstances, I don’t think we should be gleeful about it,” she told CBN News. “I don’t think we should be flippant about prescribing the death penalty because we have to ask ourselves what … has been the argument for the death penalty. It’s to protect society, right? It’s to say, ‘These people have done something so heinous they’re such a menace and danger to our society, that, in order to save our society, protect our children, we must put them to death.'”
Hawkins continued, “And that’s not where we’re at. A woman who seeks abortion, who does engage in the sin of abortion — which is an act of killing 100% — the question I have to ask myself is: Is prescribing her the death penalty and saying she should receive the death penalty, is that going to save her soul?”
The death penalty is inconsistent with a pro-life worldview.
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) February 24, 2026
Considering “every human is made in the image of God,” Hawkins believes it’s important for the pro-life community to truly consider these words.
“There’s no caveat to that,” she said. “That’s not every human being is made in the image of God if they’re innocent or if they’re sinless. Every human being, even the worst sinners of them all, were made in the image of God.”
Ultimately, Hawkins pondered whether it’s possible to punish others without becoming “killers ourselves.” She said her biggest issue with the debate centers on the flippancy with which some approach the issue.
“There’s no mercy,” she said. “There’s no conversation … The hardest commandment is when Christ calls us to love our enemies.”
Hawkins said people should ponder how to get someone — even a person who has harmed themselves or their family — to a place of seeing redemption. She argued the death penalty closes the door on allowing people to change their minds and seek Jesus.
“Execution … permanently ends for all eternity that possibility of repentance,” she said. “And so I think it’s hard to, like, claim that we love our enemies, that we’re fulfilling this commandment that Christ has given us, while also being flippant and gleeful online, insisting that so many must die.”
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Others disagree. X user SmythRadio responded: “Imposing the death penalty on those proven to have intentionally taken the life of an innocent human is the most pro-life position possible.”
Others shared a similar sentiment.
“God is pro-life and he commands evildoers to be punished by death,” Kat Kanada wrote. “To be pro-life means to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. Seems pretty obvious and morally consistent to me.”
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