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1、 The Future of AbortionThe court drills a crack in the foundation of Roe. By Ann McDaniel法院在罗案基础上钻出了裂缝。It is a debate that divides the nation, a fundamental choice between competing rights:the governments interest in protecting human life, and a womans right to make one of the larger decisions, of h
2、er lifewhen, and indeed whether, to have a child. 这个辩论是举国关注的，牵扯到两种基本对立的选择：政府主张保护人的生命， 妇女是否有权做自己生命中最大的一个决定，即什么时候以及是否要生下一个孩子。Months of nervous anticipation had infected right-to-lifers, pro-choicers, politicians, lawyers and juristsand perhaps most of all the 1. 5 million American women （who each year
3、 choose abortion as the best way to resolve their personal dilemmas）. 数个月来焦急的等待使得“要生命派， 要选择派，政客，律师，法官，乃至可能150万渴望通过堕胎来解决人生困境的最佳出路的大部分妇女们备受煎熬。Last week the Supreme Courts conservative majority spoke. In a 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the court upheld the constitutionality o
4、f a Missouri law （that sharply restricted the availability of publicly funded abortion services and required doctors to test for the viability of a fetus at 20 weeks, or two-thirds of the way through the second trimester of pregnancy）. Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a woman
5、s right to abortion, was still the law of the land, but it had been narrowed.上周，最高法院微弱多数通过由保守党多数通过的议案。在以5票对4票通过的由最高法院院长威廉 伦奎斯特起草的决定中，最高法院确认密苏里州的一项法律是合乎宪法精神的。该决定严格限制孕妇用公费进行堕胎医疗服务，并且要求医生测试怀孕20周，或者妊娠期第二个三个月阶段三分之二时胎儿的生存情况。罗诉威德一案决定，即1973年确定妇女堕胎权利具有划时代意义的决定，仍然是美国的法律，但是它的范畴已经缩小了。The Missouri case, Webster
6、v. Reproductive Health Services, had a significance far beyond the specifics of the decision, and both sides in the 16-year war over U.S. abortion policy knew it. 密苏里这起案件，韦伯斯特对妇产医院的诉说案，所产生的影响远不止该决定几条细则那么简单，参与美国堕胎政策争论达16年之久的辩论双方都明白这一点。For one thing, the ruling (arbitration) 仲裁represented the first re
7、al crack in the legal foundation of Roe, and the language of the majority opinion strongly suggested that the Rehnquist court hopes to scrap (abolish) Roe entirely, (The court also accepted three new abortion cases for its 1989 -1990 term.) 其中一点，该决定展示出罗案法律基础的第一次真正的裂缝。并且大多数的意见是强烈要求伦奎斯特法庭能够完全废除罗案（该法庭在
8、1989到1990年也接受了另外3起新堕胎案例）For another, the court clearly invited state legislatures to experiment with new laws （designed to limit access to abortion -an attempt to force abortion policy out of the courts and into the political arena- 另外一点，法庭明确邀请州立法委员研究实验新可以限制自由堕胎的法令这一行为可以把堕胎政策踢出法庭裁决，使其成为政治问题。That gam
9、bit(move) 招数delighted conservatives and opponents of abortion and it dismayed(terrified) womens-rights activists, (who are arguably less prepared to fight the kind of state-by-state and district-by-district battle( that legislative success requires.)这一招使得保守人士和反对堕胎者非常高兴，但却让女权运动倡导者们懊恼不堪，因为这样一来，要想获得立法过
10、程的胜利，她们必须逐个州，逐个区地进行抗议争取，这是她们不擅长，也缺乏充分准备的。It also terrified elected officials. To some, the new era of abortion politics meant electoral tong wars with abortion as the sole litmus test of a candidates wortha no-win proposition for any politician whose constituency is divided on the issue. 这一决定也吓坏了当选的
11、政府官员。对于一些官员来说，堕胎政治进入新时代，这意味着选举的派系战，堕胎问题是对候选人价值的石蕊实验对于自己的选民在这个问题上分为两派的政客而言，这是无法取胜的事。The post-Roe era may live up to these nightmare predictions, or it may not, Newsweeks new poll shows that most Americans broadly support the idea of compromise, although the survey results must be read carefully. 或许罗案
12、后时代，这些恶梦般的预测将会成为现实，也许将不会。新闻周刊最新的民意调查显示，大部分美国人广泛支持这种妥协的结果，当然这些调查结果必须谨慎对待。Abortion advocates may be cheered by a slow increasefrom 21 percent to 29 percent since 1975 -in public support for legalizing abortion under all circumstances, and by the corresponding decrease, from 22 percent to 17 percent, i
13、n the number of Americans （who want to make abortion completely illegal）. But detailed questions on proposals to restrict abortion tell a different story. 让支持堕胎的人开心的是从1975年起，支持妇女在任何情况下可以合法堕胎的人数由21%上升到29%，与之对应的是，认为堕胎完全非法的人数由22%降到17%。但在提出的关于限制堕胎的议案中设计到的问题确展示了事情的另外一个侧面(是另外一个情况)。The public backs（support
14、） mandatory tests of fetal viability by a 21 percent margin, and it overwhelmingly opposes the use of public money or public facilities to terminate a pregnancy unless the mothers life is endangered. It also supports more stringent medical standards for abortion clinics, even if the increased costs
15、force many clinics to close. 公众以百分之二十一的差额多数支持强制性的胎儿生存能力测试。绝大多数反对使用公家设备或者公款堕胎，除非孕妇的生命受到危及。该议案还提议要对提供堕胎服务的诊所设立更严格的医疗标准，尽管该措施会迫使很多诊所关闭。The question now is how to devise（make, invent） a legal standard for political compromisebut there is little in last weeks decision to give politicians or lower-court j
16、udges clear guidance. 现在问题是如何给政客们的妥协制定一个法律标准但在上周，政客和下级法院的法官们几乎没得到一丝明确的指示。The Missouri case confirms that the Supreme Court is ready to roll back Roe v. Wade. The plurality opinion contains language attacking the core of the Roe decision the concept of fetal viability and the division, for medical and legal reasons- of pregnancy into three trimesters. 密苏里案进一步证实最高法院打算废弃罗诉罗德一案。大多数意见都是抨击罗案核心，即提出“胚胎生存能力以及出于医学和法律原因把妊娠期分为
