时代周刊:处在危险中(2)(在线收听) |
Antiabortion activists are energized. 反堕胎活动人士精神振奋。 In a normal year, the Pink House has its share of regular protesters, but ahead of the December hearing, “abortion tourists,” as the clinic volunteers call them, have begun showing up on the sidewalk every day. 在正常的一年里,粉色之家会有一些定期的抗议者,但在12月的听证会之前,诊所志愿者称之为“堕胎游客”的人开始每天出现在人行道上。 Melissa Fowler, chief program officer at the National Abortion Federation, 梅丽莎·福勒是国家堕胎联合会的首席项目官, which tracks threats to abortion clinics, says she's heard from members “who report an escalation in antiabortion rhetoric, criminal activities and the intensity of activities” since last year. 该联合会负责追踪堕胎诊所面临的威胁。她说,自去年以来,她收到了成员的来信,“他们报告说,反堕胎言论、犯罪活动和活动强度有所上升”。 Brewer herself has become a lightning rod. 布鲁尔自己成了避雷针。 “She thinks she's doing a good thing,” says Barbara Beavers, who was trying to discourage patients from entering the Pink House in October. “But she's killing babies.” “她认为自己在做一件好事,”芭芭拉·比弗斯说,她曾在10月份试图阻止病人进入粉红之家。“但她在杀害婴儿。” Coleman Boyd, a local physician who regularly protests outside the clinic with his wife and children, also calls out Brewer by name. 科尔曼·博伊德说,他是当地的医生,经常带着妻子和孩子在诊所外抗议,还喊出布鲁尔的名字。 She and her staff, he says, “have a heart to kill.” 他说,她和她的员工都“有一颗杀人的心”。 It's in this context that Brewer, one eye still trained on the security footage, walks out the clinic's front door and strides over to the unfamiliar truck, idling a few yards from the building. 在这种情况下,她一只眼睛仍警戒地盯着监控录像,走出诊所前门,大步走向那辆陌生的卡车,在离大楼几码远的地方,卡车的发动机空转着。 She exchanges words with the driver, then rolls her eyes and flashes a nod of assurance to her staff. 她和司机说了几句话,然后转了转眼珠,并向工作人员点头以示肯定。 The truck is part of a national antiabortion group's protest that evening. 这辆卡车是当晚一个全国反堕胎组织抗议活动的一部分。 Nothing to worry about. 没什么可担心的。 Back at her desk, in front of a sign reading Queen warrior, Brewer considers the enormity of her role in the moment—the last director of her state's last abortion clinic, just weeks before the most momentous high-court hearing on abortion in a generation. 回到她的办公桌前,在一块写有“女王勇士”字样的牌子前,布鲁尔思考着她此刻所扮演的重要角色——该州最后一家堕胎诊所的最后一位主任,几周后,高等法院将举行这代人以来最重要的堕胎听证会。 “I'm going to appreciate the time that we have,” she says. “我会珍惜我们所拥有的时间,”她说。 “Once we go to court, every day that we are open and see patients and get to talk to them—it's like we don't know if this is the last time.” “一旦我们上了法庭,每天我们都会开门接待病人,并和他们交谈——就好像我们不知道这是否是最后一次见面一样。” Abortion wasn't Always such a partisan subject in America. 在美国,堕胎并不总是一个如此具有党派色彩的话题。 Nearly a half-century ago, when the Supreme Court decided Roe, the ruling wasn't as polarizing as it is now, says Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University and an expert on the legal history of abortion. 佛罗里达州立大学法学教授、堕胎法律史专家玛丽·齐格勒说,近半个世纪以前,最高法院对Roe案件的判决并不像现在这样两极分化。 Republicans kept the issue at arm's length, wary of antiabortion activists who they saw as “wild children,”she says; Democrats rarely discussed it at all. 她说,共和党人与这个问题保持一定的距离,对反堕胎活动人士保持警惕,他们认为这些人是“野孩子”; 民主党人则很少讨论这个问题。 That began to change in the 1980s, Ziegler explains, when a cadre of GOP strategists seized on abortion as a way to animate the religious right and win over voters who might otherwise lean left. 齐格勒解释说,这种情况在20世纪80年代开始发生变化,当时一批共和党战略家把堕胎用作一种激励宗教右翼的方式,并赢得了原本可能倾向左翼的选民的支持。 These activists began to test the limits of Roe, working closely with state lawmakers to pass new abortion restrictions, such as mandated waiting periods or minimum measurements for clinics' rooms and corridors. 这些激进分子开始试探Roe案件判决的底线,与州议员密切合作,通过了新的堕胎限制条例,如规定等待时间或诊所房间和走廊的最小尺寸。 |
原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/sdzk/548467.html |