Liberals see the role of government as providing a framework within which individuals can develop their lives and contribute to society. Regulation of private industry is needed to ensure integrity and safety, with respect to customers and workers. Equal opportunity should be a goal, which entails a level of provision to ameliorate the effects of poverty and discrimination. Health care and education should be universally available, since without either, individual choice is severely limited. The liberal approach to controversial issues is to recognize that there are usually conflicting principles involved, neither of which always dominates.
Most liberals are in favor of abortion rights.
Although a foetus is a pre-human, and should be accorded as many rights as possible all else being equal, the quality of life of existing human beings can at this level outweigh the potential life of the baby. Liberals believe that every human being is entitled both to equality before the law and equal opportunity in society. The conflict here involves distrust of government, individual responsibility, and attitudes towards violence within society. On the other hand, a basic liberal principle is that people should be trusted, and that large organizations should not. Many liberals prefer the outright banning of guns intended only to kill people, on the grounds that such weapons are by now ineffective in dealing with abuse of power by government.