A majority of Americans want abortion to be legal in the first two trimesters

多数美国民众支持怀孕六个月以前堕胎合法

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The Economist

经济学人

If the Alabama legislature gets its way, abortion will soon become illegal there. A doctor convicted of performing an abortion could be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison. With no exemptions in cases of rape or incest, this would be the most restrictive such law in the country.

如果亚拉巴马州议会如愿，堕胎在当地很快会成为违法行为。因为堕胎被判罪的医生可能被判处最高99年的监禁。由于该法对强奸和乱伦的情况也不能豁免，这将成为美国在这方面最严格的立法。

But other states with Republican-controlled legislatures have passed “heartbeat” laws that are almost as absolute — they ban abortion from 6 weeks, at which point many women do not yet realise they are pregnant.

然而，在一些共和党控制议会的州，通过了同样武断的心跳法案，这一法律禁止6周以后的堕胎，但是许多女性在6周时甚至都意识不到自己怀孕了。

In the abortion argument, both sides long ago drove each other to extremes. The pro-life, fundamentalist view behind the Alabama bill is that a fertilised egg is no different from a person, and thus should enjoy the same legal rights. Accept that, and what right does a woman have to take a morning-after pill, or to end a pregnancy after a rape? The pro-choice extreme is that any restriction on abortion is an unacceptable attempt by government to control women’s bodies. With debate gridlocked, the focus is on the courts.

在关于堕胎的讨论中，长期以来双方都将对方逼到了极端。亚拉巴马法案的背后是反对堕胎的原教旨主义者观点，该观点认为受精卵和人并无不同，所以应该享受相同的法定权利。接受了这一立场，女性有什么权利服用紧急避孕药或者在遭到强奸之后终止妊娠？主张堕胎合法的极端观点则认为政府在限制堕胎方面的任何尝试都是要控制女性的身体，这是不可接受的。随着争论陷入僵局，焦点聚集在了法庭上。

The latest abortion bills are about two things: preventing women from making a choice that is properly theirs, and getting a challenge to Roe to the Supreme Court where, campaigners hope, they can smoke out the new conservative majority.

最新的堕胎法案主要涉及以下两点：阻止女性做出本该属于她们的选择；向最高法院挑战罗伊案的判决。活动者希望在最高法院，他们可以使新的保守多数派终止与众。

Were Alabama’s law to come into force, the price would be paid by women too poor or browbeaten to travel to where abortions are legal. Some of them will end up attempting to perform abortions themselves, with drink, drugs or worse.

如果亚拉巴马法案生效，那些因穷困或遭到恐吓的女性将会而无法移居到堕胎合法地区，从而承担代价。一些女性可能会通过饮酒、吃药或更糟的方式自行堕胎。