Abstract
In 2014, 51 million Americans were Catholic (Masci). These Americans practiced a religion where the death penalty and abortion would be permissible in such rare and extreme cases that they practically didn’t exist. They also lived in a country where both capital punishment and abortion were federally protected. Although the dynamics between these two conflicting ideas have changed in the past 10 years, the sentiments and clashes remain timeless. Any country with a separation between church and state will have laws that go against religious practices for some. For Catholics in the United States, faith and law clashes like the death penalty and abortion force them to choose whether they will side with their religion or their country’s legal system.
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