美国国家公共电台 NPR--Many states have anti-abortion laws. Will they provide a social safety net for moms?

Many states have anti-abortion¹ laws. Will they provide a social safety net for moms?

Transcript²

Stuart Butler of the Brookings Insitution talks about whether the party that's been pushing for anti-abortion policies is prepared to pay for the infrastructure³ needed to support moms and children.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Supreme⁴ Court struck down half a century of federal abortion rights. And now a growing number of women are expected to carry unwanted pregnancies⁵ to term. If states are going to require pregnant women to give birth, are they also responsible for care for those children and their mothers? We asked Stuart Butler. He's a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution.

STUART BUTLER: I believe that the state does have an obligation to ensure that both the mothers or the mothers to be and the children do have an adequate level of benefits to enable them to lead a reasonable life. I think that many advocates for restricting abortion have said, over and over again, that the value of the life is so important and the value of the child that is born is important. Well, I think they have to kind of walk the walk, put their money where their mouth is.

MARTIN: So conservatives like to point to what are called crisis pregnancy⁶ centers around the world. But can you just explain, though, what care is offered there and the limits of it?

BUTLER: Well, it's very little. It's more a question of referral services and, I suppose, moral support and comfort to these women. But it doesn't amount to much unless there are strong programs in place for the health and the advantages of the children. And that's just not the case in many of the states which have the most strong advocates for restricting abortion and have these crisis pregnancy centers.

If you look at the states that do least today to provide either health care or they have very low levels of support for children and pregnant women, those states are highly concentrated in the South. Over half of them do not have Medicaid available for many of the women who would be affected⁷ by this. And almost all of them either have trigger laws in place that will make abortion illegal or are likely to introduce some of those. So it's really sort of a double whammy for anybody living in those states with this decision on Roe⁸. They are far less likely to have assistance for themselves and their children. And they're far less likely to have health care available to them when they are pregnant and for their children. I'm not really holding my breath for that, I have to say.

MARTIN: Well, and is there some hypocrisy⁹ here? Republicans and conservatives who've been pushing to overturn Roe for 50 years are the same lawmakers who have resisted family care policies, like extending the child tax credit, or passing federally protected family leave.

BUTLER: Well, it's certainly an odd combination to be saying, we are so concerned with life and with children that we want to ensure that no woman can have an abortion, but at the same time have done very little, if anything, to make available the resources that those women and children will need.

MARTIN: But what are you hearing, Mr. Butler, because you spent 35 years at the Heritage Foundation. I mean, you are a conservative. This was a - is a conservative think tank. These are your circles. These are your networks. Are you hearing that Republicans will be any more likely now after the court's decision to support these policies?

BUTLER: Well, I've not been looking carefully at each of the states, I have to say. But I certainly have not seen anything that suggest that there's going to be some fundamental change of direction. So that's what we're seeing over and over again, this simultaneous position of being very strongly pro-life, but at the same time being very strongly against expanding government assistance or raising taxes to fund government assistance. And I don't see any change in that on the horizon. And I think it is going to lead to really dire¹⁰ results in many of these states.

MARTIN: Can I ask you to expand? I mean, what will be the real-world implications of this?

BUTLER: Well, you're going to see, clearly, more people who traditionally have had abortions¹¹ or most likely to have abortions in states obviously carrying their children to term. And that means people who are sort of in their late 20s, typically, disproportionately people of color, particularly people with low income who are unmarried. You're going to see many, many more of them, really, unable to provide for their children and obtain the health coverage¹² that they need to have healthy children and to be healthy themselves during pregnancy.

I do believe it's a crisis - another crisis on top of an existing crisis in many of these states that already have very, very low benefits and no expanded Medicaid coverage. From the politics of the situation in many of these states, it's hard to see them changing towards a state that is much more open to expanding health and other benefits. So it's an enormous tragedy for the women and for the children who are going to be born.

MARTIN: I mean, already in this country, life expectancy¹³ is going down, especially for mothers and children. I mean, it's been on that trajectory¹⁴ already.

BUTLER: That's correct. And we have, of course, a maternal¹⁵ health crisis in this country. Compared with other countries, we have very, very high levels of maternal death - again, particularly among low-income women and women of color. That is going to increase. There's no question that that will increase. I think, ultimately, that we will never settle this issue unless we have legislative¹⁶ decisions, ideally at the national level, of course, rather than see it as a court issue. If you look at almost every other country that I can think of, they've resolved this issue through legislative changes, including changes to constitutions, not by court decisions. So I think this is going to be a litmus test for state races and for national races for, probably, decades to come.

MARTIN: Yeah.

BUTLER: I mean, we're going to be the outlier of every major industrial country.

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 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

4 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。

5 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

6 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。

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 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？

9 hypocrisy   

n.伪善，虚伪

参考例句：

• He railed against hypocrisy and greed.他痛斥伪善和贪婪的行为。
• He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story.他指责了报纸在报道该新闻时的虚伪。

10 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

11 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

12 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

13 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

14 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

15 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

16 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。