美国国家公共电台 NPR--Groups opposing abortion are getting more calls for help with unplanned pregnancies

Groups opposing abortion¹ are getting more calls for help with unplanned pregnancies²

Transcript³

Anti-abortion rights groups say they've been preparing to help women facing unplanned pregnancies through a network of volunteer organizations. Critics say those services come with strings⁴ attached.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

With abortion now unavailable in a growing number of states, groups that help patients travel for the procedure are reporting a bigger need for assistance. Groups that oppose abortion rights are also getting more calls from pregnant women seeking help. NPR's Sarah McCammon recently traveled to Texas, where anti-abortion-rights activists⁶ say they've been waiting for this moment.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE⁷: Pam Whitehead spends a lot of time on the phone, talking to people facing unexpected pregnancies and all kinds of needs.

PAM WHITEHEAD: So currently, you don't have a vehicle. So tell me how - are you using public transportation?

MCCAMMON: Whitehead is the executive director of ProLove Ministries⁸, an anti-abortion group that tries to persuade people not to choose abortion and helps with transportation, housing and other needs for those who continue their pregnancies. After the law known as SB 8 took effect just over a year ago in Texas, banning most abortions⁹ here after about six weeks, Whitehead says her organization's hotline saw a spike¹⁰ in calls for help. Those calls have continued, and come from across the country, since the overturning of Roe¹¹ v. Wade¹² in June.

WHITEHEAD: We were preparing for this in advance. We knew this was coming. We anticipated it. And we knew that we needed to prepare to be able to serve women.

MCCAMMON: On a summer day, Whitehead is taking calls at the kitchen table of a suburban¹³ home on a quiet street outside Houston. It's a maternity¹⁴ home Whitehead's group operates. A few women, mostly in their 20s and 30s, are working in the kitchen - washing dishes, cooking over a hot stove - or hanging out in the adjacent living room. They've come to live here, some of them for months at a time, while pregnant or caring for a new baby. Near the front door, several strollers stand in a neat row while their tiny occupants sleep down the hall in their mothers' bedrooms.

WHITEHEAD: We call this our parking garage (laughter).

MCCAMMON: Women typically come here after struggling to find stable housing. Samantha, who's 31, asked that we use only her first name because she's worried about backlash from her former boyfriend, who she says pressured her to have an abortion she didn't want. She came from the Midwest to Texas while still pregnant, initially¹⁵ planning to give up her baby for adoption¹⁶.

SAMANTHA: And then I started feeling Benji (ph) move. And I'm just like, do I really want to give him up? Do I really want to give my little boy up? And I remember I prayed on it. And I would sit in the hotel room. And I would just cry and scream, tell me what you want me to do.

MCCAMMON: Samantha was determined¹⁷ to keep her baby and desperate for a place to stay. She called the ProLove Ministries hotline, which placed her in the maternity home outside Houston. She arrived here around Memorial Day, just days before she delivered her baby several weeks early due to a life-threatening condition called preeclampsia.

SAMANTHA: And by the grace of God, Benji was born 4 pounds, 6 ounces, 16 inches long via C-section. And Pam was in the room with me. She was holding my hand. Yeah. It was the scariest 'cause he's so little. He's way too early. But he's doing amazing now.

MCCAMMON: Pam Whitehead's group is one of many around the country, including hundreds of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy¹⁸ centers they work with closely, that offer parenting classes and supplies, often donated by church groups. The organization's founder¹⁹, Abby Johnson, is a vocal²⁰ and often controversial activist⁵ who opposes abortion rights in virtually all cases, even in situations like the 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped²¹ and denied an abortion in her home state soon after the Supreme²² Court released its decision this summer. Whitehead says she agrees with that position, and she's motivated by her own experiences.

WHITEHEAD: I can't imagine being in that situation. I know what it's like to be raped though. I also know what it's like to have an abortion. And I'll tell you this - that that abortion impacted me greatly.

MCCAMMON: For Samantha, who describes herself as pro-choice, the maternity home has been a rare, if complicated, place of refuge and support. In her small bedroom near the front of the house, filled with baby clothes and toys, Samantha says she's grateful for the help and especially the housing, which she'd struggled to find because of a criminal conviction in her past. But she's concerned about the consequences of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

SAMANTHA: There's going to be a lot of women that are going to go through hell because of this, emotionally and physically²³. Because there are women that are going to have ectopic pregnancies that they can't get assistance. There are going to be women that get raped that can't get assistance.

MCCAMMON: In the aftermath of new abortion laws in Texas and now nationwide, calls to the hotline so far this year have nearly quadrupled compared to a year ago. Other anti-abortion groups tell NPR they're also working to expand similar services for new and expectant mothers. But Sonya Borrero, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, says that help often comes alongside inaccurate²⁴ information and pressure to continue a pregnancy. Borrero has researched crisis pregnancy centers, known as CPCs.

SONYA BORRERO: CPCs definitely take advantage of people's economic insecurity and just the societal inadequate²⁵ support we have for pregnant people.

MCCAMMON: She says these anti-abortion centers far outnumber abortion clinics nationwide and typically don't provide a full range of reproductive health care, such as contraception. Borrero says many of the ones she's encountered in her research also promote false information about the safety of abortion pills and procedures.

BORRERO: I think these centers do speak to the significant need we have to support pregnant people and especially those who choose to parent. It really is filling that gap that our society has not filled. But it does come at a cost because there is an ideologically-driven mission.

MCCAMMON: As the need grows in a post-Roe environment, it's unclear how much of the gap these groups will be able to fill. When we visited this summer, the maternity home outside Houston was full, with one woman sleeping temporarily in an open loft²⁶ area. Meanwhile, Democrats²⁷ in some red states, including Mississippi, are pushing their Republican colleagues to vote for more public funding for maternity care and postpartum support as abortion becomes increasingly out of reach.

Sarah McCammon, NPR News, Houston.

(SOUNDBITE OF NATHAN SALSBURG'S "IMPOSSIBLE AIR")

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 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。

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 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

5 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。

6 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》

7 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。

8 ministries   

（政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期

参考例句：

• Local authorities must refer everything to the central ministries. 地方管理机构应请示中央主管部门。
• The number of Ministries has been pared down by a third. 部委的数量已经减少了1/3。

9 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

10 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

11 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？

12 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。

13 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

14 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

15 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

16 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

17 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

18 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。

19 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

20 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

21 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

22 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。

23 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

24 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。

25 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

26 loft   

n.阁楼，顶楼

参考例句：

• We could see up into the loft from bottom of the stairs.我们能从楼梯脚边望到阁楼的内部。
• By converting the loft,they were able to have two extra bedrooms.把阁楼改造一下，他们就可以多出两间卧室。

27 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》