# Abortion should be decided state-by-state because democracy is more important **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 17, 2026, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738 "2026-02-17T07:00:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/21 "2026-02-17T17:04:36Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > These are objectively faulty arguments, But BOTH the arguments you just posted are equally “faulty" constitutionally speaking .. > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Abortion is just another thing that should be handled at the state level. And > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > it’s covered under a “right to privacy.” Yeah the constitution doesn’t explicitly use the words “right to privacy” or “abortion” in the 14th Amendment. But then it doesn’t in article 1 either there is no “Congress should pass no laws regarding abortion or other healthcare issues, that should be left up to the states” clause. Sure you can choose to _interpret_ it that way but that’s just as “faulty” interpreting the 14th amendment to include a right to privacy. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/22 "2026-02-17T17:21:46Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > I don’t believe abortion is (or should be) murder, but I also don’t believe the right to abortion is a natural or human right. I first want to say I genuinely appreciate hearing your perspective on this, even if I don’t agree with it. I think the right to abortion falls more broadly into the right to bodily autonomy. Do you think the right to bodily autonomy should not be a human right, and why not? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/23 "2026-02-17T17:58:46Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I think the right to abortion falls more broadly into the right to bodily autonomy. Do you think the right to bodily autonomy should not be a human right, and why not? That’s the fundamental crux of the abortion issue. Pro-life advocates feel that the right to life of an unborn child must take precedence over the mother’s right to bodily autonomy. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/24 "2026-02-17T18:49:24Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I think the right to abortion falls more broadly into the right to bodily autonomy. Do you think the right to bodily autonomy should not be a human right, and why not? And I believe it’s not a human right. I’ll go even further to say I believe it is essentially infanticide and should be illegal (in my state). But this thread isn’t about whether abortion should be legal or illegal, so I’ll stop right there. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/25 "2026-02-17T18:55:39Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > And I believe it’s not a human right. I’m certain we all want to believe you mean abortion. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/26 "2026-02-17T18:59:09Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > That’s the fundamental crux of the abortion issue. Pro-life advocates feel that the right to life of an unborn child must take precedence over the mother’s right to bodily autonomy. I think that most people are in support of bodily autonomy in the abstract, but don’t want it to apply to women. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/27 "2026-02-17T19:00:20Z")
@Spice_Weasel said, > Do you think the right to bodily autonomy should not be a human right, and why not? I am interpreting this to mean she believes having an abortion should be a human right due to “bodily autonomy.” If this is correct, then it means I believe the opposite; I do not believe _having an abortion_ is a human right. But perhaps my interpretation is incorrect. And again, we’re off-topic here. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/28 "2026-02-17T19:06:16Z")
I think for myself I would flip that around. The right to bodily autonomy is a human right and therefore abortion would naturally fall into scope. As would the right to not be experimented on without your consent, raped or enslaved, forced to take medication, forced to donate an organ, or anything else. This feels relevant to whether or not it falls into the domain of state’s rights. But if the OP disagrees I’ll respect that. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/29 "2026-02-17T17:52:43Z")
Except that the revanchist post-Reconstruction Supreme Court rulings that gutted the 14th Amendment’s privileges and immunities clause still stand as precedents; the 14th is no longer a blanket authority for the Federal government to secure liberties to the People. Instead, the narrower and more demanding standard of Due Process has to be applicable. ETA: now I catch up to the multiple warnings about relevancy to the OP. Mods please forward to the new thread. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/30 "2026-02-17T20:12:44Z")
Bodily autonomy must be absolute. For men and women. Anything else is reproductive slavery. Women are not “vessels” whose only function and worth is their ability to provide children. This country is quickly reverting to that sickening reality. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/31 "2026-02-18T06:31:05Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > And if you don’t believe there are _any_ unenumerated rights, that what does the Ninth Amendment mean when it says Sometimes, unenumerated rights are protected incident to a primary, enumerated right. For example, due to Article IV, a citizen of Vermont has a federal right to apply for the New Hampshire bar (to practice law in that state) on the same terms as residents of New Hampshire. _Supreme Court of N.H. v. Piper_, 470 U.S. 274 (1985). But I do not think the Ninth Amendment provides any independent protection of rights. > [@Does the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution itself protect individuals from State infringement of unenumerated rights?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ninth-amendment-to-the-united-states-constitution-itself-protect-individuals-from-state-infringement-of-unenumerated-rights/922125): > > Does the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution itself protect individuals from State infringement of unenumerated rights? I don’t think it does. The Tenth Amendment ensures that the federal government is limited to enumerated powers. I do not think the Ninth Amendment grants the federal government any power to protect unenumerated rights, therefore I do not think the Ninth Amendment itself protects individuals from State infringement of unenumerated rights. Current jurisprudence su… ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/32 "2026-02-18T06:51:46Z")
I don’t think a law banning medical procedures violates the right to bodily autonomy. I suspect we have a fundamental disagreement as to what bodily autonomy means. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/33 "2026-02-18T06:55:00Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > You are saying the constitution means only the state government has the power to regulate woman’s bodies not the federal government. Even though **the constitution does not explicitly say that** either! I would distinguish between bans and (directly) regulating women’s bodies. But letting states decide whether to ban or allow abortion care is implied by the Tenth Amendment: > The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Where it says “to the States respectively, or to the people”, the distiction is left to state law, so far as the federal government is concerned. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/34 "2026-02-18T07:18:51Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > May a community set moral standards about _everything_? Objectively, yes. But a _democratic_ community can go ‘too far’, because without democratic values, it ceases to be a democratic community. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/35 "2026-02-18T07:26:57Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > The counterargument, of course, is that abortion is a fundamental “right” that should be protected at the federal level, in the same way that the right to free speech is protected at the federal level. Or that it’s covered under a “right to privacy.” These are objectively faulty arguments I agree with **LSLGuy**. There’s nothing _objectively_ faulty with arguing abortion should be protected at the federal level, provided the right process is followed to reach that objective. I think Alaska, for example, protects privacy in a state constitutional amendment, and has construed that amendment to protect the right to abortion access. I don’t see anything objectively wrong with someone who wants the same at the federal level. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/36 "2026-02-18T07:28:46Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > But a _democratic_ community can go ‘too far’, because without democratic values, it ceases to be a democratic community. Even if the “moral standards about everything” that @LSLGuy mentions are things that the population votes on (i.e., referendums), and/or are implemented by their directly, democratically-elected officials? Those are, fundamentally, the core of “democratic values,” AFAIK. A majority of the community’s voters chose these things, and chose to control morals in their community through legislation. Such a community might be obnoxious and intolerant, but I’m not seeing how they are not “democratic.” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/37 "2026-02-18T07:32:55Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Plus, for reasons that are above my pay grade to understand, the Constitutional amendment process seems to be broken – or, at least, not really used any longer. I think the Supreme Court’s expansion of the commerce clause and 14th Amendment in the '60s contributed to this significantly. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, prohibiting poll taxes, was really the end of an era. It was a huge waste of political capital if the Supreme Court could re-interpret the Constitution to find poll taxes unconstitutional anyways–which it did, two years later, in 1966. And it’s a problem now that the ideology of the court has shifted, and the civil rights act of 1964 is under fire. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/38 "2026-02-18T07:35:20Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > I think the Supreme Court’s expansion of the commerce clause and 14th Amendment in the '60s contributed to this significantly. Perhaps so. Regardless, the net of it’s the same: the standard response to people who disagree with narrow interpretations of the Constitution, or want a right enshrined, is “well, then, get an amendment passed”…but that simply doesn’t happen anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/39 "2026-02-18T07:44:16Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Do you think the right to bodily autonomy should not be a human right, and why not? I think the right to bodily autonomy is a human right. And furthermore, I think laws that criminalizes _self-managed_ abortions implicate that human right. So do laws that criminalize suicide. Laws criminalizing assisted suicide and provision of abortions, however, do not. I also think nobody should attempt self-managed abortion, or suicide. Oh, and like all other human rights based on dignity, the boundaries of the right are sensitive to context. People are unique and rights only exist with reference to social context. Dignity for a child looks very different than dignity for an adult in the prime of life, which looks different than dignity for an elder. And even at the same age, dignity in one culture looks different than dignity in another. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/40 "2026-02-18T07:55:26Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Pro-life advocates feel that the right to life of an unborn child must take precedence over the mother’s right to bodily autonomy. I can only speak for myself. > [@Max\_S](#): > > While I do not view abortion access itself as such a right (my argument would be very different if I did), the preservation of a mother’s life certainly is. States that provide no life-saving exceptions–or create enough legal ambiguity to ‘chill’ doctors from providing life-saving care–overstep their authority and violate that more basic right. ~Max [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738.md?page=3)