美国国家公共电台 NPR Ban On Abortion Funding Stays In House Bill As 2020 Democrats Promise Repeal

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

In this country, the House of Representatives is not ready to challenge a long-standing U.S. law on abortion¹. It's a ban more than 40 years old on most federal funding for abortions². Democrats⁴ running for president have denounced this ban, but the Democrats who control the House are preparing to pass a spending bill extending it. Here's NPR congressional reporter Kelsey Snell.

KELSEY SNELL, BYLINE⁵: Democrats running for president in 2020 are clear. Their party's nominee⁶ will defend abortion rights, including ending the 43-year-old ban on federal funding for abortions known as the Hyde Amendment⁷.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

ELIZABETH WARREN: I don't support the Hyde Amendment, and I will lead the fight to have it overturned.

KAMALA HARRIS: And the bottom line on the Hyde Amendment is that it is directly, in effect, targeting poor women.

JOE BIDEN: If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's ZIP code.

SNELL: Those were presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden in recent weeks. But back in Washington, House Democrats say it's not that easy. The Hyde Amendment was first adopted in 1976 in a bipartisan vote by lawmakers who opposed using taxpayer⁸ money for abortions. Named for its author, Republican Congressman⁹ Henry Hyde, the ban was a response to Roe¹⁰ v. Wade¹¹, which was decided¹² three years earlier.

Since then, it's been baked into spending bills that fund the Department of Health and Human Services. That bill includes major Democratic priorities, including more than $2 billion for Alzheimer's research and more than $3 billion to fight AIDS. And that is reality, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience at an event in Washington this week.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

NANCY PELOSI: I don't think it's good public policy, and I wish we never had the Hyde Amendment. But that is the law of the land right now, and I don't see that there's an opportunity to get rid of it with the current occupant of the White House and some in the United States Senate.

SNELL: That is why leaders tamped¹⁴ down an effort by freshman¹⁵ Democrat³ Ayanna Pressley to strip the Hyde Amendment from this year's spending bill. House Progressive Caucus¹⁶ Chair Pramila Jayapal says she wishes Hyde didn't exist. She says the party is now overwhelmingly in favor of abortion rights, but spending bills need bipartisan support to avoid another government shutdown.

PRAMILA JAYAPAL: You know, we are where we are. People don't want to throw that in into an appropriations¹⁷ bill that has to go to a Republican Senate and be signed by a Republican president.

SNELL: Democrats in Congress acknowledge that presidential candidates have to take a stand. Biden was recently forced to come out against Hyde after abortion rights supporters, including other Democrats, attacked the former vice¹³ president for publicly backing the ban. And House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries says a lot of candidates running for president have faced the same dilemma¹⁸.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: I believe that every single candidate for president who served in either the House or the Senate - every single one of them voted for an appropriations bill that contains the Hyde Amendment.

SNELL: That includes Harris, Biden, Warren and nearly a dozen other candidates. In an interview this week with the NPR Politics Podcast, Harris rejected that characterization.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

HARRIS: Let's be clear. I've not voted for the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment is the law, and so it has been attached to other funding bills. And until we repeal¹⁹ it, which is what I am in favor of, it will be attached to federal government funding bills. That's the problem with the Hyde Amendment.

SNELL: Sitting lawmakers like Harris will have to decide if they're willing to risk a shutdown fight over federal money for abortion when the spending bills come up for a vote later this year. Kelsey Snell, NPR News, the Capitol.

(SOUNDBITE OF BRIAN ENO AND KARL HYDE SONG, "TO US ALL")

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 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

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 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》

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 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

7 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

8 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

9 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

10 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？

11 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。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

13 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

14 tamped   

v.捣固( tamp的过去式和过去分词 )；填充；（用炮泥）封炮眼口；夯实

参考例句：

• The poets, once so praised, are tamped unceremoniously together in our textbooks, in one curt chapter. 那些名噪一时的诗人，在今天的教科书里，已被毫不客气地挤在一起，列为短短的一章。 来自辞典例句
• They tamped down the earth around the apple tree. 他们把苹果树周围的泥土夯实。 来自互联网

15 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

16 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

17 appropriations   

n.挪用（appropriation的复数形式）

参考例句：

• More commonly, funding controls are imposed in the annual appropriations process. 更普遍的作法是，拨款控制被规定在年度拨款手续中。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Should the president veto the appropriations bill, it goes back to Congress. 假如总统否决了这项拨款提案，就把它退还给国会。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

18 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

19 repeal   

n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消

参考例句：

• He plans to repeal a number of current policies.他计划废除一些当前的政策。
• He has made out a strong case for the repeal of the law.他提出强有力的理由，赞成废除该法令。