# 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:** 1\ **Showing post:** 19
**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, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738/19 "2026-02-17T16:09:45Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Of course, Max is right – we should absolutely go through the effort of enshrining abortion as a constitutional right, via an amendment. It’s true that vast majority of Americans, after all, _want_ abortion to be legal up to viability, and the only remaining debate is about what exceptions should be allowed after that. _I think_ there’s enough popular sentiment there to get to the 3/4s of states required to ratify an amendment. I would sure hope so, but I wouldn’t count on it. Part of the issue, I think, would be that, even if much more than half of Americans would support such a law, they are probably unevenly distributed, and I don’t think that you’d get a majority supporting it in the 3/4 of the states. 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. In the last 50 years, there has only been **one** Amendment instituted: the 27th. It’s a relatively minor amendment: it delays laws affecting Congressional pay from taking effect until after the next Congressional election (so a Congress cannot technically vote to give themselves a pay raise). And that one, which was implemented in 1992, was first proposed in 1789. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-should-be-decided-state-by-state-because-democracy-is-more-important/1027738)._