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2022年上半年，随着“罗伊诉韦德”案在美国被推翻，即最高法院裁定堕胎违法，美国多地爆发了不满此法律的游行，但是现今法律已经生效。今天贸学长带着大家，一起看一下这篇经济学人文章，一同探究“罗伊诉韦德”案被推翻后对美国的孕产妇造成了什么样的影响。
原文导读 Mortal danger for mothers
The young woman’s waters broke when she was 19 weeks pregnant. The doctors told her the baby stood no chance of surviving, but that if the pregnancy continued the woman risked an infection, which might lead to sepsis and kill her. They could not perform an abortion, though. Months earlier Texas, where she lived, had passed a law banning terminations after detection of a fetal heartbeat unless there was danger “of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function”. This wording worried the doctors: if they did an abortion while she still appeared healthy and the baby had a heartbeat, they could be prosecuted. They suggested she fly to Colorado instead.
So she did: booking a seat, as advised, near the toilets in case she went into labour. She reached the clinic in time and is now healthy. But things could have turned out differently, if she had not had the cash for a plane ticket, say, or if no clinic had been able to give her an appointment. “It is barbaric to put a woman in distress on a plane to another state,” says Carole Joffe, a professor at the Bixby Centre for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. “It is not how you do medicine in a civilised country.” America has the highest maternal mortality rate in the industrialised world. With the overturning of Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that abortion was a constitutional right, it will probably rise.
International comparisons are imperfect but in 2018, while in the Netherlands and Norway there were no more than three maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births, in America there were 17. Most states that now ban abortion, or soon will, allow exceptions if a woman’s life is in danger. But abortion providers and obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyns) say laws tend to be so vaguely worded that they often do not know if they are breaking them.
Nisha Verma, an ob-gyn who performs abortions in Georgia, where they will soon be illegal after six weeks, says such laws are not written by medical experts—and it shows. They fail to recognise that a woman can develop a condition that may not put her in immediate danger but that, without an abortion, could nonetheless kill her. Waters breaking before a fetus is viable is one such condition; cancer that necessitates chemotherapy (which may hurt the fetus) is another. The list goes on: high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy and renal disease are all conditions that can arise or worsen during pregnancy. Reports have already surfaced of women denied crucial medical care to complete a miscarriage or end an ectopic pregnancy for fear it could be construed as aiding an abortion.
第一段：The young woman’s waters broke when she was 19 weeks pregnant. The doctors told her the baby stood no chance of surviving, but that if the pregnancy continued the woman risked an infection, which might lead to sepsis and kill her. They could not perform an abortion, though. Months earlier Texas, where she lived, had passed a law banning terminations after detection of a fetal heartbeat unless there was danger “of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function”. This wording worried the doctors: if they did an abortion while she still appeared healthy and the baby had a heartbeat, they could be prosecuted. They suggested she fly to Colorado instead.
参考译文：这位年轻妇女在怀孕19周时羊水破了。医生告诉她，婴儿没有机会存活，如果不打掉孩子，该妇女有感染的风险，这可能导致败血症，危及她的生命。但他们不能给她做堕胎手术。几个月前，她居住的德克萨斯州通过了一项法律，禁止在检测到胎儿心跳后终止妊娠，除非有 “死亡或主要身体功能严重受损的危险”的情况。这一措辞让医生们很担心：如果他们在她看起来仍然健康的情况下做了堕胎手术，而且婴儿有心跳，他们可能会被起诉。他们建议她飞往科罗拉多。
知识点解读：
1.Water(s)：在医学上表示“羊水”，相当于“amniotic fluid”，例如，“Don't worry, contrary to movie-fueled myth, it's very rare for your water to gush out in public.不要担心，与电影里虚构的故事不同，羊水在公共场合大量涌出的机率是很小的。”
2.stand no chance of：没有…的希望，例如，“The bad news is we stand no chance of winning this game.坏消息是我们没有机会赢得比赛的胜利。”大家注意积累另一个表达，“stand a chance”，意为“有机会……”，例如，“His opponent did not stand a chance.他的对手毫无取胜的机会。”
3.risked an infection:被感染的风险，“risk+n”表示“冒着……的风险”，例如，“We can’t risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。”
4.perform an abortion：做堕胎手术。 termination：本意是“终端”，医学上指代“终止妊娠、堕胎”。
第二段：So she did: booking a seat, as advised, near the toilets in case she went into labour. She reached the clinic in time and is now healthy. But things could have turned out differently, if she had not had the cash for a plane ticket, say, or if no clinic had been able to give her an appointment. “It is barbaric to put a woman in distress on a plane to another state,” says Carole Joffe, a professor at the Bixby Centre for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. “It is not how you do medicine in a civilised country.” America has the highest maternal mortality rate in the industrialised world. With the overturning of Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that abortion was a constitutional right, it will probably rise.
参考译文：于是她就这样做了：按照建议，她订了一个靠近厕所的座位，以防她临产。她及时赶到了诊所，现在很健康。但是，如果她没有钱买机票，或者没有诊所能够给她预约，事情的结果可能会不一样。加州大学旧金山分校比克斯比全球生殖健康中心的教授卡罗尔-乔夫（Carole Joffe）说：“把一个身处困境的妇女送上前往另一个州的飞机很野蛮。这不是一个文明国家应有的医疗方式。” 美国是工业化国家中孕产妇死亡率最高的国家。随着 “罗伊诉韦德 ”案被推翻，即最高法院裁定堕胎是一项宪法权利，孕产妇死亡率还有可能会上升。
知识点解读：
http://1.in case：以防万一，例如，“I shall stay in the hotel all day in case Mary comes.我要一直呆在旅馆，以防玛丽过来。”大家要注意区分“in case”和“in case of”,“in case of”也是表示“以防万一”，两者的区别在于“in case”是连词，引导条件状语从句，也就是说“in case”后面是一个完整的句子；而“in case of”中的of是介词，介词后面只能带名词性质的词，比如名词、代词等，用来描述“如果/当事情发生时我们该做些什么”，例如，“The cash buffer corporate America has built up in case of harder times makes a fresh shock of that kind unlikely.美国公司的现金缓冲只限于时艰时期未必不会产生新的冲击。”
2.Go into labor: 分娩，例如，“Your water may or may not break before you go into labor.在你进入分娩之前羊水可能破也可能不会破。”
http://3.in distress：在困境中，例如，“The woman is heard crying out in distress - saying she does not know the man.可以听到该名女子痛苦的哭喊声，说她不认识这名男子。”
4.maternal mortality rate：孕产妇死亡率，例如，“The maternal mortality rate is particularly worrying, pointing to serious problems.产妇的高死亡率令人担忧，说明还是存在很大的问题。”
the industrialised world：外宣文本上的常见词汇，表示“工业国家”，例如，“Cigarette prices in Japan are among the lowest in the industrialised world.日本的卷烟价格是工业国家中价格最低的。”
第三段：International comparisons are imperfect but in 2018, while in the Netherlands and Norway there were no more than three maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births, in America there were 17. Most states that now ban abortion, or soon will, allow exceptions if a woman’s life is in danger. But abortion providers and obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyns) say laws tend to be so vaguely worded that they often do not know if they are breaking them.
参考译文：国际上比较也并不完美，但在2018年，荷兰和挪威每10万名活产婴儿的产妇死亡人数不超过3人，而在美国则有17人。现在禁止堕胎或很快将禁止堕胎的大多数州称，如果产妇的生命有危险，允许破例处理。但是，堕胎者和妇产科医生（ob-gyns）说，法律的措辞往往非常模糊，他们往往不知道自己是否违反了法律。
知识点解读：
1.exception：例外，常见的搭配是“make exception 破例”和“take exception 表示异议；有反感”，例如，“It can not make exception for me.不能给我破例。”和“We take exception to this question.我方对这个问题有异议。”
vaguely worded：措辞含糊，例如，“There's nothing worse than getting an email from a co-worker that's so vaguely worded you have no idea what you're supposed to do with it.没什么能比收到一封同事言辞模糊的来信更糟糕的了，你根本不知道你对着它要做什么。”
第四段：Nisha Verma, an ob-gyn who performs abortions in Georgia, where they will soon be illegal after six weeks, says such laws are not written by medical experts—and it shows. They fail to recognise that a woman can develop a condition that may not put her in immediate danger but that, without an abortion, could nonetheless kill her. Waters breaking before a fetus is viable is one such condition; cancer that necessitates chemotherapy (which may hurt the fetus) is another. The list goes on: high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy and renal disease are all conditions that can arise or worsen during pregnancy. Reports have already surfaced of women denied crucial medical care to complete a miscarriage or end an ectopic pregnancy for fear it could be construed as aiding an abortion.
参考译文：Nisha Verma是一名在格鲁吉亚进行堕胎手术的妇产科医生，她说这些法律显然不是由医学专家制定的。他们没有认识到，一个妇女可能会出现某种情况，这种情况可能不会使她立即面临危险，但如果不进行堕胎，还是会使她致死。胎儿还未成活就破水就是这样一种情况；需要进行化疗的癌症（可能会伤害胎儿）是另一种情况。这个情况的列表还在继续增加：高血压、心肌病和肾脏疾病都是在怀孕期间可能出现或恶化的情况。已经有报告显示，妇女被拒绝接受完成流产或结束宫外孕的关键医疗护理，因为她们担心这可能被认为是帮助堕胎。
知识点解读：
1.develop a condition：在医学上表示“发展成某种疾病”，例如，“Without enough of this essential vitamin, the body can develop a condition called anemia. 如果人体缺乏足够的这种维生素，就发展成为贫血症。”
2.Viable：可实施的；切实可行的，例如，“The scheme is economically viable.这个计从经济效益来看是可。”其近义词为“feasible”,例如，“A tunnel was not considered economically feasible. 从经济上考虑，用隧道并不。”
3.high blood pressure：高血压的普通表达，相当于医学上的“hypertension”，例如，“Recently, young people with high blood pressure have been shown to be just as susceptible to mental decline as elderly people are. 最近，高血压的年轻人被证实与老年人一样易受智力下降的影响。”相对应的，“低血压”为“low blood pressure”和“hypotension”。
4.cardiomyopathy：心肌病，cardi-作为前缀表示跟心脏有关的部位及疾病。
5.renal disease：肾病，人体部分器官的对应英语为：lung肺、kidney肾脏、stomach胃、liver肝脏、spleen脾。
6.miscarriage：在医学上表示“流产”的意思，例如，“He could always bury himself in work, but, since the miscarriage, she never left the house. 他一直公务缠身，而她自流产之后寸步不离家门。”
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