You may be operating under a very faulty impression of Catholic teaching, even if some Catholics gave you this impression. There is no Catholic teaching that says you have to support welfare. For that matter, Catholic teaching does not prohibit the state from instituting the death penalty. The Pope has said that he believes that the death penalty is no longer necessary, given modern situations. But this does not mean a Catholic who is in favor of a just death penalty is against Church teaching. And Catholic teaching on just war is extremely complex. Some Catholics have argued the war in Iraq is not a just war; others have argued that it is. Neither opinion is necessary to be following Church teaching.
Abortion however, has been recognized as wrong, even as far a pre-Christian Judaism. In Christian teaching it was already recognized as an evil by the Didache, written in 70 A.D.
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