美国国家公共电台 NPR--GOP faces challenges on how to legislate and message around abortion rights

GOP faces challenges on how to legislate¹ and message around abortion² rights

Transcript³

Abortion is once again center stage in American politics, which is challenging Republicans on how to legislate and message around abortion rights.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Abortion is once again center stage in American politics. Late last night, Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, signed into law a bill that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy⁴. In D.C., we're waiting to see whether the Supreme⁵ Court will take up a review of a circuit court ruling that the abortion pill, mifepristone, cannot be administered after the seventh week of pregnancy. Both leave Republicans facing a challenge about how to message and how to legislate on abortion rights. To help us break all this down, we have NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales and NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro with us.

Thanks for being here again.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE⁶: Hey there.

CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Thanks for having us.

FADEL: So, Claudia, I'm going to start with you. Republicans in Congress have the majority, but definitely not a super-comfortable majority. Some would argue that's because of the party's stance on abortion. So how are they messaging on the issue now?

GRISALES: We're seeing a bit of a mixed bag when we hear from members talking about this issue. Some are focused on their base who want to see stiffer limits on abortion access while other more moderate members are speaking out. We're really seeing this divide play out in the House. And this includes South Carolina's Nancy Mace⁷, one of those more moderate members, who on CNN said recently that this is a losing argument with voters.

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NANCY MACE: We are getting it wrong on this issue. We've got to show some compassion⁸ to women, especially women who've been raped⁹. We've got to show compassion on the abortion issue because, by and large, the - most of Americans aren't with us on this issue.

GRISALES: At the same time, many Republicans are not on the same page with Mace. So what we're seeing in many cases is that they're not all on the same page when it comes to Republicans, altogether, when it comes to how far they should go in terms of legislating¹⁰ to limit access to abortions¹¹.

FADEL: Interesting. Domenico, is Mace right? I mean, Republicans have long campaigned on limiting abortion access. Now that it's a reality, where is public opinion on the issue?

MONTANARO: Yeah. I mean, abortion politics and how people feel about it is very nuanced. But, you know, politics doesn't exactly lend itself to nuance¹² very well. But, you know, most people are in favor of some restrictions¹³ on abortion. It just depends on how far people want to go. And that's kind of part of the problem for Republicans, is a lot of these state laws that they're pushing are outside of what the mainstream¹⁴ or the majority of people are in favor of. You know, a Public Religion Research Institute survey released earlier this year found that almost two-thirds of people believe that abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances. That's up 10 points since 2010. And the most signifying event here wasn't really the Dobbs ruling last year; it was the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice, in 2020.

FADEL: Now, Claudia, in NPR's reporting from the campaign trail last year after the overturning of Roe¹⁵ v. Wade¹⁶, it seemed like Republican congressional candidates were reluctant to talk about their position on abortion. Do you think that's what we'll see in 2024?

GRISALES: Yeah. So far, when we're seeing hints of how they'll approach their campaigns, I think we're seeing a repeat of that now. We will see, as we have in the past, that Republicans will talk about limiting access to abortion, but more and more in more general terms, publicly supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But as for the next steps for legislating, that's less clear in terms of where they stand. We're seeing a lot of that being taken up by the states, by the courts.

We did see House Republicans, for example, at the start of this congressional session, pass two anti-abortion bills, but they were mostly limited in scope and didn't go as far as taking up legislation that would have more broader impact. And so it's largely performative because Republicans know they don't have a chance in terms of moving these bills out of the House with a Democratic-controlled Senate, with a Democratic president. At the same time, we know Democrats¹⁷ are finding this to be an energizing¹⁸ issue for their voters, the vast - with the vast majority of the country supporting some kind of access to abortions. We did see that play out in the midterms with Republicans not performing as well as they had hoped. And so Republicans are in a difficult position here.

And, you know, circling back to Mace's comments that we played earlier, she also talked about limiting access to the abortion drug and essentially¹⁹ said that we should ignore this federal judge's ruling on that. But as Domenico mentioned, Republicans who do represent voters who support these new limits will struggle, you know, in terms of finding agreement when we look at the polling and what they're up against.

FADEL: Now, that's Congress. Domenico, this is, of course, going to be an issue in the presidential election, as it always is. And we mentioned earlier that DeSantis is making moves on abortion access in Florida, and he's a potential candidate. So what does that say about his possible campaign?

MONTANARO: Yeah. I mean, they're basically - you know, when you look at all the Republicans, they're jockeying for the activist²⁰ base. I mean, DeSantis himself had been criticized by activists²¹ on the right because he was supportive and signed a 15-week ban - and they thought that didn't go far enough - when, you know, there's a lot more public opinion on Republicans' side when it comes to 15-week bans. Although, there's a pretty sharp split. But when it comes to a six-week ban, far less so.

FADEL: So that's DeSantis and what he's been doing, but what are other candidates or potential candidates saying?

MONTANARO: Yeah. We saw South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, for example, form an exploratory committee this week, and he's known to be pretty conservative and religious. He said this week that he would actually find a - sign a federal 20-week ban, saying that he would definitely do that. And he was trying to criticize Democrats for being extreme on the subject. But, you know, when you look at most of what Democrats want to do or Republicans, very different and not - Republicans in their primary, not really aiming to the middle.

FADEL: NPR's Domenico Montanaro and Claudia Grisales.

Thank you so much.

MONTANARO: You're welcome.

GRISALES: Thank you much.

1 legislate   

vt.制定法律；n.法规，律例；立法

参考例句：

• Therefore,it is very urgent to legislate for the right of privacy.因此，为隐私权立法刻不容缓。
• It's impossible to legislate for every contingency.为每一偶发事件都立法是不可能的。

2 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。

3 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。

4 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。

5 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。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 mace   

n.狼牙棒，豆蔻干皮

参考例句：

• The sword and mace were favourite weapons for hand-to-hand fighting.剑和狼牙棒是肉搏战的最佳武器。
• She put some mace into the meat.她往肉里加了一些肉豆蔻干皮。

8 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

9 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

10 legislating   

v.立法，制定法律( legislate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Why are the senators sitting there without legislating? 为什么那些议员们做在那里不立法？ 来自互联网
• From legislating and protecting peasant's interests organizationally. " 从立法和组织上保护农民利益。 来自互联网

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 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

13 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

14 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

15 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？

16 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。

17 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 energizing   

v.给予…精力，能量( energize的现在分词 )；使通电

参考例句：

• a refreshing and energizing fruit drink 提神并增加体能的果汁饮料
• The time required after energizing a device, before its rated output characteristics begin to apply. 从设备通电到它开始提供额定输出特性之间所需的时间。 来自辞典例句

19 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

20 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

21 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》