NPR Politics Podcast: The history of abortion rights in the U.S.

NPR Politics Podcast: The history of abortion¹ rights in the U.S.

Transcript²

In September, the NPR Politics Podcast put together an episode on the U.S. history of abortion rights. Given the leaked Supreme³ Court draft decision, it provides some helpful context for this moment.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

This past September, the NPR Politics podcast put together an episode on the history of abortion rights in the U.S. We listened back to it, given the leaked Supreme Court draft, and it provides some helpful context for this moment. We're going to play part of it now, but we should warn you, you'll hear from people who spoke⁴ to NPR in the 1970s about why they got illegal abortions⁵ and describe what it was like to undergo the procedure. Here's podcast host Tamara Keith, speaking with legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

TAMARA KEITH: It has been nearly a half-century since the Supreme Court legalized abortion. That means there is an entire generation - more than a generation - who doesn't know what life was like without legal abortion in the United States. So, Nina, can you take us back to those years leading up to Roe⁶ v. Wade⁷?

NINA TOTENBERG: Well, you know, interestingly, abortion was not made illegal until the late 1800s. But by the 1960s, abortion, like childbirth, was really a very safe procedure when performed by a doctor. And women were entering the workforce⁸ in large numbers. And to have a child out of wedlock⁹ was to make working not only far more difficult, but it was like putting a scarlet¹⁰ letter on your back. It was scandalous. As a result, illegal abortion was becoming a public health problem. The numbers of women who had illegal abortions each year ranged from 200,000 to over a million. I know that's a wide estimate. In 1973, NPR spoke to one of those women who had an illegal abortion. She didn't want her name used.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I was very ashamed. But now I see that I was ashamed for many reasons, more than just the things that I had done. In other words, I think I was ashamed because I had nobody to help me. When you have an illegal abortion, all the institutions and all the people which normally support you through a crisis disappear into the mist. And I think this is one of the most damaging things about it because when you make that decision, you are probably as lonely and alone as you will ever be in your whole life.

KEITH: That is a devastating¹¹ story and not an uncommon¹² one at the time.

TOTENBERG: That's right, Tam. And to talk about how the Roe case came to be at the Supreme Court, I talked to somebody who was actually there at the time.

GEORGE FRAMPTON: Hi, I'm George Frampton. I was a law clerk for Justice Harry¹³ Blackmun at the time that the Roe v. Wade case was argued and decided¹⁴.

TOTENBERG: At the time, if you were a young woman who lived in a college dormitory, you were likely to see one or more women carried out of your dorm hemorrhaging from a botched illegal abortion.

FRAMPTON: Those abortions either had to be obtained undercover if you had a sympathetic doctor if you were wealthy enough, or more likely illegally in back rooms, often by abortion quacks¹⁵, crude tools, no hygiene¹⁶. By the early, mid-'60s, thousands of women in large cities were coming into hospitals bleeding, risk of their lives, often maimed.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: The best way I can describe it would be the equivalent of having a hot poker¹⁷ stuck up into your uterus and scraping the walls with that. It was excruciatingly painful. The attendant that was there held me down on the table. I must say he worked on me more as though I were literally¹⁸ a piece of meat. And I don't mean that to be vindictive¹⁹, but that was the way the relationship was.

FRAMPTON: And as a result, in the mid-'60s, a reform movement had started, begun to decriminalize abortion, treat it like a normal medical decision between a woman and her doctor.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court, we are once again before this court to ask relief against the continued enforcement of the Texas abortion statute²⁰.

KEITH: So, Nina, I am guessing that because this is the way things work in this country, there was, like, a patchwork²¹ of state laws with different rules and different approaches that came to the Supreme Court.

TOTENBERG: Correct. The American Law Institute, a highly respected group of lawyers, judges and scholars, published a model abortion reform law supported by the American Medical Association. And many states began loosening the restrictions²² on abortion. Four states legalized it, and a dozen or so other adopted some form of the model law, which permitted abortion in cases of rape²³ or incest, fetal abnormality and to save the life or health of the mother. Most of the laws follow the ALI recommendations but by the 1970s, when nearly half the states had adopted reform laws, there was a small backlash. Still, as George Frampton observes...

FRAMPTON: When this came to the court, it wasn't a big political or ideological²⁴ issue at all.

KEITH: That seems sort of surprising, I mean, given where we are politically right now. Wow.

TOTENBERG: In fact, you know, the justices of the Supreme Court back then were mainly conservative establishment figures. Six were Republican appointees, including the court's only Catholic, and five were generally conservatives as defined at the time, including the four appointed by President Nixon.

FRAMPTON: These were people who were establishment conservative justices who saw this as a constitutional aspect of a medical and legal reform movement.

TOTENBERG: As it happened, Roe was argued twice because of the death of two justices. And by January of 1973, the court was ready. Justice Blackmun announced the decision for a 7-2 majority.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Supreme Court today ruled that abortion is completely a private matter to be decided by mother and doctor in the first three months of pregnancy²⁵. The seven...

KEITH: So the framework established in Roe and upheld repeatedly by the court was that for the first two trimesters, the choice was the woman's.

TOTENBERG: Correct, with some qualifications added in 1992, when the court said that states could enact²⁶ some restrictions as long as they didn't impose a, quote, "undue²⁷ burden on a woman's right to abortion."

KEITH: Why did the court impose that rigorous framework around trimesters?

TOTENBERG: Well, Frampton says that the court hewed²⁸ to the traditional view in Anglo-American law that the fetus²⁹ became a person at quickening, when the woman first feels the fetus move. And that usually was defined as between 18 and 22 weeks. And having this framework, the court thought it could resolve the issue.

FRAMPTON: The justices thought that this was going to dispose of the constitutional issues about abortion forever.

FADEL: So far, forever has lasted a little over 49 years. That was NPR's Nina Totenberg talking about the history of abortion rights with colleague Tamara Keith.

(SOUNDBITE OF ERNIE R ROUSSEL TRIO'S "TANIATA")

1 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 abortions   

n.小产( abortion的名词复数 )；小产胎儿；（计划）等中止或夭折；败育

参考例句：

• The Venerable Master: By not having abortions, by not killing living beings. 上人：不堕胎、不杀生。 来自互联网
• Conclusion Chromosome abnormality is one of the causes of spontaneous abortions. 结论：染色体异常是导致反复自然流产的原因之一。 来自互联网

6 roe   

n.鱼卵；獐鹿

参考例句：

• We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
• I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？

7 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

8 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

9 wedlock   

n.婚姻，已婚状态

参考例句：

• My wife likes our wedlock.我妻子喜欢我们的婚姻生活。
• The Fawleys were not made for wedlock.范立家的人就跟结婚没有缘。

10 scarlet   

n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的

参考例句：

• The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
• The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了，深红的颜色变成了绯红，绯红又变为浅红。

11 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

12 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

13 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

15 quacks   

abbr.quacksalvers 庸医，骗子(16世纪习惯用水银或汞治疗梅毒的人)n.江湖医生( quack的名词复数 )；江湖郎中；（鸭子的）呱呱声v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• I went everywhere for treatment, tried all sorts of quacks. 我四处求医，看过了各种各样的江湖郎中。 来自辞典例句
• Hard-working medical men may come to be almost as mischievous as quacks. 辛勤工作的医生可能变成江湖郎中那样的骗子。 来自辞典例句

16 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

17 poker   

n.扑克；vt.烙制

参考例句：

• He was cleared out in the poker game.他打扑克牌，把钱都输光了。
• I'm old enough to play poker and do something with it.我打扑克是老手了，可以玩些花样。

18 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

19 vindictive   

adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的

参考例句：

• I have no vindictive feelings about it.我对此没有恶意。
• The vindictive little girl tore up her sister's papers.那个充满报复心的小女孩撕破了她姐姐的作业。

20 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。

21 patchwork   

n.混杂物；拼缝物

参考例句：

• That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
• She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。

22 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

23 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

24 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

25 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

26 enact   

vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演

参考例句：

• The U.S. Congress has exclusive authority to enact federal legislation.美国国会是唯一有权颁布联邦法律的。
• For example,a country can enact laws and economic policies to attract foreign investment fairly quickly.例如一个国家可以很快颁布吸引外资的法令和经济政策。

27 undue   

adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的

参考例句：

• Don't treat the matter with undue haste.不要过急地处理此事。
• It would be wise not to give undue importance to his criticisms.最好不要过分看重他的批评。

28 hewed   

v.（用斧、刀等）砍、劈( hew的过去式和过去分词 )；砍成；劈出；开辟

参考例句：

• He hewed a canoe out of a tree trunk. 他把一根树干凿成独木舟。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He hewed out an important position for himself in the company. 他在公司中为自己闯出了要职。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

29 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。