# Does the State have the power to force an abortion?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-state-have-the-power-to-force-an-abortion/969987>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 20, 2022, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-state-have-the-power-to-force-an-abortion/969987 "2022-08-20T12:29:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-state-have-the-power-to-force-an-abortion/969987/41 "2022-08-23T21:28:31Z")

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> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> OK, leaving aside criminals and other people who are wards of the state, what is to stop the state from concluding that, based on your drug use, your criminal record, fetus deformities, or whatever, they want to force you to have an abortion?

What’s to stop it?

Nothing, outside of laws forbidding it and a government that enforces those laws.

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**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-state-have-the-power-to-force-an-abortion/969987/42 "2022-08-23T21:50:08Z")

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Right. That’s my point – pre-Dobbs, I think Roe may have protected that right.

Post-Dobbs, the state now has the power to tell women (or transmen) how much risk they must take to get an abortion, if they can get one at all. The state has taken away the right of women (etc.) to control their own reproduction and the use of their organs. Some states have limited exceptions for the physical health of the woman, but nothing for mental health.

So, the state can tell a woman that she must risk her mental health (and maybe physical health, and maybe her life) in order to support a fetus in utero.

With that control over a woman’s (transman’s) body, where is the right that says that a state can’t, after due process, force a woman _not_ to provide that fetal support?

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**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-state-have-the-power-to-force-an-abortion/969987/43 "2022-08-24T02:23:01Z")

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> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> I’m not saying it’s a good argument

Oh its definitely a bad argument, akin to, “we didn’t kill him we just left him tied up in the middle of the desert.”

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**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-state-have-the-power-to-force-an-abortion/969987/44 "2022-08-24T09:50:52Z")

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Haha! Yes, exactly.

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