I made this comment in the 'How can women be anti-choice?' topic, and I realized it may make an interesting debate topic.

Pro-lifers are always whining about how abortion needs to be made illegal because it's wrong, it's an act of playing God, it kills a 'human person', and so forth. What if the tables were to get turned, and what if forced abortions became legal?

Imagine this scenario:
A few years down the road, the world has become even more incredibly overpopulated, to the point where there are not enough resources to sustain the life that exists. The price of things like fuel, meat, vegetables, and water go way up, to the point where only high-income individuals (or those who can milk the system for good welfare benefits) can afford these - everyone else has to make due with things that are entirely man-made.

The government realizes this is a huge problem and puts a law into place that makes IVF illegal and requires people to terminate all pregnancies, and this law would be in place for about three years to reduce the population. Think China's one-child policy, only one child less than what they allow; women would undergo mandatory pelvic exams four times a year to ensure they are not pregnant, and if they are pregnant, they are forced (perhaps against their will) to abort, regardless of how far along they are. Also, prices on things like IUDs and sterilization go down dramatically and birth control becomes free...to encourage people to not get pregnant.

I know something like this would never happen, but imagine, if you can, if it did. Pro-lifers, you go on and on about how women should have no choice when they are pregnant and should give birth no matter what, because it's the new life that matters and not the existing one. You want our choice taken away....well, what if yours got taken away? What if you wanted a child so bad, but you were forced to abort every time you got pregnant?

I'd bet you wouldn't like having legally no say over what happens to your body. What makes you think other women want the government to dictate what they can and cannot do with their own bodies and their own lives?

And it could be said that forced abortions for the sake of population control was in the best interests of the people - there would possibly be more resources to go around and having more available to us would not only be good for the population in general, but it would also be in the best interests of future generations.