美国国家公共电台 NPR--Latino voters weigh abortion rights — and the economy — in a key congressional race

Latino voters weigh abortion¹ rights — and the economy — in a key congressional race

Transcript²

Sergio del Castillo calls himself a Democrat³. On a windy Saturday outside Todo's Grocery Store in the outer Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., Del Castillo said his concerns over the economy, crime and school safety have tested his loyalty⁴.

"They really haven't done what they promise," he said. "Both parties — not only Democrats⁵."

Still, when it comes to the Supreme⁶ Court decision overturning a national right to abortion, Del Castillo, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico more than four decades ago, is unequivocal: "I was very disappointed," he said. "And I hope they change it again."

Republicans made inroads with Latino voters in the 2020 presidential race. But in a shift from the past, recent polling shows abortion and reproductive rights — issues emphasized by Democrats — have risen dramatically in importance for those voters ahead of this year's midterm elections.

Nationwide, Pew found abortion was a very important issue for 57% of Latino voters in August — up 15 percentage points since March. More than one in four Latino voters surveyed this month by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund listed reproductive rights as their top issue – up from around 4% in 2020, according to Dorian Caal, the group's director of civic⁷ engagement research.

The congressional district in Virginia that Del Castillo calls home is the center of a bellwether⁸ race on abortion rights. The contest in Virginia's newly drawn⁹ 7th Congressional District could determine whether the issue of reproductive rights could be enough to overcome what Latino voters overwhelmingly report is their overriding¹⁰ concern: the economy.

The race pits a Latina Republican law enforcement officer, Yesli Vega, against a Spanish-speaking former CIA officer, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va. The Democrat is defending her seat, albeit¹¹ in a new district that does not overlap¹² much with her current one, in the outskirts¹³ of Richmond, Va. The Cook Political Report recently moved its rating of the race from Lean Democratic to Toss-Up.

The new district, on the outer edge of the Washington, D.C., suburbs and the surrounding countryside, is less white and more diverse: roughly one in five voters identify as Latino.

Vega's win would make history, as Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin noted¹⁴ at one of her campaign rallies last week: "We are going to smash all records and send the first Latino Virginian to Congress."

The standing-room-only crowd packed in a '90s themed restaurant roared as Vega skewered¹⁵ President Joe Biden, the media and "woke culture." She said she would "never co-parent with the federal government" and falsely claimed Spanberger wanted to "put parents in jail."

Vega's father is a minister, and at times her speech burned with righteous resolve: "What's been predestined for us in heaven, no man or liberal can take from us," she exclaimed.

In an interview after the rally, Marcia Fuentes, one voter in this district, said Vega's message struck a chord. Like Vega, Fuentes' father is a pastor¹⁶ and the two attended the same church as children. She said her faith guides all her decisions, including on abortion.

"Once you put a child in your womb, that's it," she said. "He needs to come to life, because nobody has the right to kill a child."

Fuentes says she'd like to see Congress ban the procedure. Vega seemed to agree during the Republican primary, saying that she found liberal states' abortion laws quote "unacceptable." When speaking to reporters after the event in October, Vega distanced herself from national abortion bans.

"They've reverted¹⁷ that back to the states," she said. "So it's a state issue. It's not a federal issue anymore."

Like other GOP candidates, Vega has shied away from talking about abortion after the June Supreme Court decision, especially after Axios published a recording¹⁸ of her seeming to downplay the risk of someone getting pregnant after a rape¹⁹. Her team did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

In an interview, Spanberger said the comments were part of a broader trend of "extreme" rhetoric²⁰ from Vega, who has questioned the validity of the 2020 election, defended people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and referred to the FBI as the "deep state."

"For a woman who may choose abortion — that is up to her and her medical professional," Spanberger said.

Spanberger said she believes that to also be true for pregnancies²¹ beyond 20 weeks — "catastrophic situations where a woman will die, or a fetus²² is not viable²³." She said Congress should act to codify²⁴ Roe²⁵ v. Wade²⁶ if Democrats maintain control.

Abortion hasn't featured prominently in Spanberger's Spanish-language TV and newspaper ads, which focus on her goals of creating well paying jobs and reducing prices at grocery stores and the gas pump.

Still, Elena Lane said the overturning of Roe was one of the driving motivators to giving up her Saturday morning to knock doors for Spanberger in Prince William County. The Virginia realtor called the court's recent decision "terrible."

"I wanted to cry, because they took [away] the right [from] a woman," she said.

It's not lost on Lane that abortion is now legal in parts of her native Mexico but no longer universally legal in her adopted home country. But it's not just abortion on Lane's mind. She said democracy itself is on the ballot²⁷, and that, more than anything else, keeps her firmly in the camp of Democrats.

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 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

4 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

5 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》

6 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。

7 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

8 bellwether   

n.系铃的公羊，前导，领导者，群众的首领

参考例句：

• University campuses are often the bellwether of change.大学校园往往引领变革的新潮。
• For decades the company was the bellwether of the British economy.几十年来，这家公司一直是英国经济的晴雨表。

9 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

10 overriding   

a.最主要的

参考例句：

• Development is of overriding importance. 发展是硬道理
• My overriding concern is to raise the standards of state education. 我最关心的是提高国民教育水平。

11 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

12 overlap   

v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠

参考例句：

• The overlap between the jacket and the trousers is not good.夹克和裤子重叠的部分不好看。
• Tiles overlap each other.屋瓦相互叠盖。

13 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

14 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

15 skewered   

v.（用串肉扦或类似物）串起，刺穿( skewer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He skewered his victim through the neck. 他用扦子刺穿了受害人的脖子。 来自辞典例句
• He skewered his foot on a nail. 他的脚踩在钉子上了。 来自互联网

16 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

17 reverted   

恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还

参考例句：

• After the settlers left, the area reverted to desert. 早期移民离开之后，这个地区又变成了一片沙漠。
• After his death the house reverted to its original owner. 他死后房子归还给了原先的主人。

18 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

19 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。

20 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

21 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。

22 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。

23 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。

24 codify   

v.将法律、法规等编成法典

参考例句：

• The noble,Dracon,was asked to codify the laws.贵族德拉古被选为立法者。
• The new government promised to codify the laws.新政府应允要编纂法典。

25 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？

26 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。

27 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。