美国国家公共电台 NPR At A Virginia Planned Parenthood Clinic, Practitioners Worry For Their Patients

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: 

This week, we've been hearing from people whose lives may change under a Donald Trump¹ presidency². My co-host Ari Shapiro is talking with them as he drives through North Carolina and Virginia on his way to the inauguration³. Today's stop - Roanoke, Va., and a visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: 

The Planned Parenthood clinic in Roanoke is a one-story brick building off a busy street. The Blue Ridge⁴ Mountains float on the horizon. Once a receptionist buzzes you in, a waiting room has coloring books for patients and their kids. In a room on the other side of the building, women sit in cubicles⁵ and answer the phone.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Are you having any symptoms, Sir, or did you...

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Yes, it is.

SHAPIRO: Patrice Campbell works here, booking appointments for 15 Planned Parenthood clinics across the region. Right after the election, she noticed a huge increase in calls, many of them asking for the same thing.

PATRICE CAMPBELL: We've seen where a lot of patients - I would say maybe 50 to 70 percent of patients eager to get in for long-term contraceptive, which we call LARCs. So their focus is, I need to get an IUD before January 20 because, you know, an IUD can last for five or even 10 years.

SHAPIRO: January 20 - Inauguration Day - Anne Logan Bass⁶ has been a clinician here for eight years. She says for the entire staff, the election was tough.

ANNE LOGAN BASS: My mother actually called me, and she was asking how things were going. And I said, Mom, it's just - we're just - we're all crying. And she said, is everyone worried they're going to lose their job? Like, no, everyone is so worried about our patients.

SHAPIRO: For years, Republicans have tried to end federal funding that gets routed to Planned Parenthood. They object to the fact that the organization provides abortions⁸ among other health care services. This clinic in Roanoke treats about 2,800 patients a year. Nationally, Planned Parenthood says it treats 2 and a half million patients a year, and abortions make up 3 percent of the services.

(CROSSTALK)

SHAPIRO: At the Sweet Donkey coffee shop in central Roanoke, Laura Rodriguez drinks tea while her 2-month-old baby girl stares wide-eyed at the world. Rodriguez describes herself as lower-middle-class, working as a waitress. She has no health insurance.

LAURA RODRIGUEZ: I'm not a big fan of Planned Parenthood. I went there before for health issues, and they were extremely overpriced. I had to pay out of pocket a lot of money.

SHAPIRO: Planned Parenthood says it uses a sliding scale for fees based on a patient's annual income. In another corner of the cafe, Sarah Law is meeting a friend for coffee. She's a registered nurse.

SARAH LAW: So I'm pretty conservative myself, and as far as abortions go, that's a different subject. But as far as women's health and Planned Parenthood, I think that does a lot of wonderful things for women that don't have the means to get proper care that they need.

SHAPIRO: So if I'm interpreting what you're saying correctly, you don't support abortions, but you do think Planned Parenthood does some good stuff.

LAW: Absolutely.

SHAPIRO: So how do you feel about that people who say, well, the only way to limit abortions is to strip federal funding for Planned Parenthood?

LAW: It doesn't make any sense to do that.

SHAPIRO: Figures out this week show the U.S. abortion⁷ rate is at its lowest level since Roe⁹ versus¹⁰ Wade¹¹, and Sarah Law fears that without easy access to contraception, those numbers could go back up.

On this road trip, we've been asking everyone what their hopes and fears are for the next four years. So at the clinic, I ask Anne Logan Bass about her hopes and fears.

BASS: I hope that we can continue to see more people, increase access. I fear that misinformation and inaccurate¹², unreliable information is going to continue to make our job hard.

SHAPIRO: I mean you talk about misinformation, but isn't there really an ideological¹³ divide here?

BASS: Well, the ideological belief about abortion I think is separate from the whole defunding conversation because federal funds don't cover abortion services.

SHAPIRO: While that's true, conservative lawmakers argue that money can be moved around. Congress has passed a bill stripping funding for Planned Parenthood before, and President Obama has always vetoed them. Next week, after Donald Trump is in office, Congress plans to vote on such a measure once again.

SIEGEL: That's my co-host Ari Shapiro reporting from Roanoke, Va. Tomorrow, Ari arrives back in Washington, D.C., with college students who are traveling to see Donald Trump take the oath of office. NPR's Steve Inskeep and Audie Cornish will be out there, too, and you can hear there live coverage¹⁴ of the event. You can also watch as NPR footnotes the inaugural¹⁵ address as it happens at npr.org.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE XX SONG, "INTRO")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

3 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

4 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

5 cubicles   

n.小卧室，斗室( cubicle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Security guards, operating inside bullet-proof glass cubicles, and speaking through microphones, scrutinized every arrival and departure. 警卫们在装有防弹玻璃的小室里值勤，通过麦克风细致盘问每一个进出的人。 来自辞典例句
• I guess they thought me content to stay in cubicles. 我猜他们认为我愿意呆在小房间里。 来自互联网

6 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

7 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。

8 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

9 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？

10 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

11 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。

12 inaccurate   

adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的

参考例句：

• The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确，而且夸大其词。
• She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。

13 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。

14 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。

15 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。