美国国家公共电台 NPR--The future availability of abortion pills remains uncertain after conflicting rulings

The future availability of abortion¹ pills remains² uncertain after conflicting rulings

Transcript³

A conflicting and confusing set of federal court rulings Friday is leaving abortion providers in the U.S. uncertain about the future availability of abortion pills.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Two federal judges issued a pair of conflicting rulings on Friday, creating uncertainty⁴ for future access to abortion pills.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

A federal appeals court is expected to weigh in soon, possibly within days. Meanwhile, providers and patients are trying to prepare for whatever comes next.

MART?NEZ: NPR's Sarah McCammon joins us now to talk about this. Sarah, so what's this mean for someone who wants access to abortion pills right now?

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE⁵: Well, at the moment, A, nothing, but the impact is likely to become a lot clearer very soon, maybe this week. What happened first on Friday was that a federal judge in Texas issued a ruling ordering the Food and Drug Administration to suspend its approval of the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide. That's scheduled to go into effect this coming Friday. David Donatti is an attorney with the ACLU of Texas, and he says the judge didn't give a lot of detail about what that means.

DAVID DONATTI: So, for example, if medication is already in pharmacies⁶ and has already been prescribed, can those prescriptions⁷ be filled? These are questions that the lowest court's order just does not answer.

MCCAMMON: But an appeals court could answer that question, and the Justice Department has appealed to the Fifth Circuit. We may hear from them this week. But if we don't, the judge's order would take effect.

MART?NEZ: Yeah. And I mentioned earlier that other abortion pill case in play. That's a decision from a federal judge in Washington state. How does that factor into this?

MCCAMMON: Right. Eighteen Democratic attorneys general sued the FDA to try to protect access to mifepristone. The federal judge in that case ruled also on Friday that, yes, the FDA should preserve access. His decision may offer at least some protection for access for people in those 17 states and the District of Columbia. But ultimately, this case probably ends up at the Supreme⁸ Court. And that, by the way, is where anti-abortion rights groups tell me they want it to go. They want to see this resolved at a national level. And they're optimistic that the high court will agree with the judge in Texas.

MART?NEZ: And abortion providers have got to be wondering what to do after these decisions. I mean, what are you hearing from them?

MCCAMMON: They're talking to their lawyers. They're preparing for multiple possible scenarios⁹. And, you know, they've been doing that for months, really, since anti-abortion groups filed the lawsuit¹⁰ in Texas last year. The guidance these providers get could be different depending on where they are, whether they're in one of those states that was part of that Washington case I mentioned. Melissa Grant is CEO of Carafem, which provides abortion pills at three clinics and through telehealth. Over the weekend, she told me they're looking really closely at what might still be legal after that seven-day waiting period is up.

MELISSA GRANT: It's going to be working closely with legal advisers¹¹ in a really rapidly and changing environment. That's what I foresee in the next seven days and likely beyond that.

MCCAMMON: Grant says Carafem is also poised¹² to increase capacity for surgical¹³ abortion, if necessary, at its clinics, but they only have so much capacity. A spokeswoman for another company called Wisp, which provides abortion pills over telehealth, told me they're rushing to put together a plan to let patients stock up on mifepristone in advance of whatever might happen in court. And both of these companies, Carafem and Wisp, and many other providers also have been preparing to switch to a different regimen if mifepristone becomes unavailable.

Most medication abortions¹⁴ in this country use mifepristone plus a second drug called misoprostol. But misoprostol alone is used around the world, and many U.S. providers are looking at switching to that approach if they need to. But some advocates tell me they worry misoprostol could be the next target for anti-abortion groups.

MART?NEZ: Sarah, if the FDA has to take the pills off the market, will patients have any other options?

MCCAMMON: You know, right now many people are using alternative sources to get abortion pills, often online, from overseas. And already, more than a dozen states, including Texas, where this lawsuit started, have banned all types of abortion in most cases. You know, I talked to Elisa Wells with the group Plan C that provides information about some of those alternative sources. She says tens of thousands of people are getting pills this way, and she says that's likely to escalate¹⁵ depending on the outcome of this case.

MART?NEZ: That's NPR's Sarah McCammon. Sarah, thanks for providing clarity.

MCCAMMON: Thank you.

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 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

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 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

5 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。

6 pharmacies   

药店

参考例句：

• Still, 32 percent of the pharmacies filled the prescriptions. 但仍然有32%的药剂师配发了这两张药方。 来自互联网
• Chinese herbal pharmacies, and traditional massage therapists in the Vancouver telephone book. 中药店，和传统的按摩师在温哥华的电话簿里。 来自互联网

7 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。

8 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。

9 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

10 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

11 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

12 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

13 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

14 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

15 escalate   

v.(使)逐步增长(或发展)，(使)逐步升级

参考例句：

• It would tempt Israel's neighbors to escalate their demands.它将诱使以色列的邻国不断把他们的要求升级。
• Defeat could cause one side or other to escalate the conflict.失败可能会导致其中一方将冲突升级。