美国最高法院拒绝阻止 德州禁堕胎法案

MARTIN: We're going to go next to Texas, where a doctor is facing lawsuits for performing an abortion in defiance of a new law.

马丁:我们将前往德克萨斯州，那里的一名医生因无视新法律进行堕胎而面临诉讼。

INSKEEP: This is the law that bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. It's also the law with a creative enforcement provision. Ordinary citizens are invited to sue anybody who helps with an abortion. State officials are barred from enforcing the law, which made it impossible to go to court to stop them. The Supreme Court, you may recall, declined to block this law in advance. Now the case is going to court, though critics of abortion are not happy.

英斯基普:这是一项禁止怀孕六周后堕胎的法律。这也是一项具有创造性执行条款的法律。法律邀请普通公民起诉任何帮助堕胎的人。法律禁止州官员执行该法律，因此无法上法庭阻止他们。你们可能还记得，最高法院拒绝提前阻止这项法律。现在这个案子要上法庭了，尽管对堕胎持批评态度的人并不高兴。

MARTIN: NPR's Sarah McCammon is following this and joins us now. Hey, Sarah.

马丁:NPR新闻的莎拉·麦卡蒙正在跟进并加入我们的节目。嘿,莎拉。

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Good morning.

萨拉·麦卡蒙连线:早上好。

MARTIN: Just start off by telling us more about the doctor who's being sued.

马丁:先跟我们说说那个被起诉的医生吧。

MCCAMMON: Yeah, his name is Dr. Alan Braid. He's an abortion provider from San Antonio. And over the weekend, he wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he said he intentionally violated this law in an effort to provoke a legal challenge to it. He's now facing at least two lawsuits. And remember, as we said, SB 8 bans most abortions in Texas and lets anyone file lawsuits against abortion providers or anyone else believed to have been involved in illegal abortions. These penalties for violations start at $10,000, creating a lot of incentive for people to file lawsuits. And that is what is beginning to happen, at least in one of these cases.

麦卡蒙:是的，他是艾伦·布雷德医生。他是圣安东尼奥的堕胎医生。周末，他在《华盛顿邮报》上发表了一篇专栏文章，称自己故意违反了这条法律，试图引发对法律的挑战。他现在面临至少两起诉讼。请记住，正如我们所说，SB 8在德克萨斯州禁止大多数堕胎，并允许任何人对堕胎提供者或任何被认为参与非法堕胎的人提起诉讼。这些违规的罚金1万美元起，给人们创造了很多的诉讼动机。这就是正在发生的事情，至少在其中一个案例中是这样的。

MARTIN: And so who's doing the suing. Who's behind the suit?

马丁:那么是谁在起诉呢?谁是幕后黑手?

MCCAMMON: Yeah, one comes from an Arkansas man named Oscar Stilley. And he describes himself in the filing as a disbarred and disgraced former lawyer who is currently in house arrest. He's serving a 15-year federal sentence for tax evasion and conspiracy charges. Still, he told The Washington Post he didn't file the lawsuit because of any strongly held beliefs about abortion but largely because he was hoping to collect the money. He's asking for as much as $100,000. The other suit was filed by a man from Chicago, Felipe Gomez, who describes himself as pro-choice. And he is using this complaint to ask the courts to invalidate the Texas law.

麦卡蒙:对，其中一个来自阿肯色州，名叫奥斯卡·斯蒂利。他在文件中称自己是一名被取消律师资格、名誉扫地的前律师，目前被软禁。他因逃税和共谋罪名在联邦服刑15年。不过，他告诉《华盛顿邮报》，他之所以提起诉讼，并不是因为他对堕胎有任何强烈的信念，主要是因为他希望能拿到这笔钱。他要价高达10万美元。另一起诉讼是由来自芝加哥的男子费利佩·戈麦斯提起的，他自称支持堕胎。他正在利用这一投诉请求法院宣布德克萨斯州法律无效。

MARTIN: But, Sarah, this is how the law was designed, right? I mean, it had this accountability mechanism. If a person breaks the law, they were going to be sued by ordinary civilians. So explain why anti-abortion groups aren't happy with this outcome.

马丁:但是，莎拉，法律就是这样制定的，对吧? 我是说，它有问责机制。如果一个人违反了法律，他们将会被普通老百姓起诉。所以请解释为什么反堕胎组织对这个结果不满意。

MCCAMMON: Right. They had hoped that the prospect of these penalties and litigation would stop Texas abortion providers from performing abortions beyond the limit in the law. Now, most providers in Texas say they are complying with the law but not Dr. Braid. And now he's facing these two lawsuits. But Texas Right to Life, which pushed hard for SB 8, isn't pleased. This isn't what they intended. In a statement, they say, quote, "Both cases are self-serving legal stunts abusing the cause of action created in the Texas Heartbeat Act for their own purposes."

麦卡蒙:没错。他们曾希望，这些处罚和诉讼将阻止德克萨斯的堕胎提供者实施超出法律限制的堕胎。现在，德克萨斯州的大多数医疗服务提供者都说他们遵守了法律，但布雷德医生没有。现在他面临着两起诉讼。但极力推动SB8的德州生命权利组织并不满意。这不是他们想要的。在一份声明中，他们表示，“这两起案件都是自私的法律噱头，他们为了自己的目的滥用了《德克萨斯心跳法案》中规定的诉讼理由。”

MARTIN: But Doctor Braid, the doctor who defied this this law - you mentioned he did this intentionally. He knew it was coming. He must be trying to draw out these legal questions. Is this going to call into question the law itself and whether it's going to be allowed to stand?

马丁:但是布雷德医生，那个违反这条法律的医生——你提到他是故意这样做的。他知道它要来了。他一定是在设法引出这些法律问题。这是否会质疑法律本身以及它是否会被允许成立?

MCCAMMON: I talked to Mary Ziegler, a Florida State University law professor who focuses on reproductive rights. And she thinks so. She says anti-abortion groups who backed this law in Texas hoped it would prompt lawsuits from like-minded people. But now that it's taken effect, it's being used in a variety of other ways.

麦卡蒙:我采访了玛丽·齐格勒，她是佛罗里达州立大学的法学教授，主要研究生育权。她也这么认为。她说，在德克萨斯州支持这项法律的反堕胎组织希望它能引起志同道合者的诉讼。但现在它已经生效了，它被用于许多其他方面。

MARY ZIEGLER: As a vehicle for getting rid of the law or just a vehicle for collecting money. And neither of those things, I think, are what Texas Right to Life had in mind. The problem, of course, is when you have a law where anyone can sue for any reason, there's no guarantee that they'll share the aims of Texas Right to Life.

玛丽·齐格勒:作为一种摆脱法律的手段，或者仅仅是一种敛财的手段。我想，这两件事都不是德州生命权利组织想要的。当然，问题是，当你有一项任何人都可以以任何理由起诉的法律时，并不能保证他们会同意德州生命权的目标。

MCCAMMON: And there are several ongoing challenges to this law. This is just one more potential opportunity to test it in court.

麦卡蒙:这项法律还面临着一些挑战。这只是又一个在法庭上测试的机会。

MARTIN: NPR's Sarah McCammon, thank you.

马丁:NPR新闻的莎拉·麦卡蒙，谢谢你。

MCCAMMON: Thank you.

麦卡蒙:谢谢。