How does abortion translate? Ballot measures are a challenge for interpreters

Reproductive rights measures are on the ballot in 10 states, after heated debates over how to describe their impact on abortion — and that’s only in English.

In 388 locations in the U.S. where English is not the primary language among voting communities, the Federal Voting Rights Act requires that all election information be made available in each community’s native language.

These translations are intended to help non-native English speakers understand what they are voting for. But vague or technical terms can be challenging, especially when it comes to indigenous languages ​​that only have limited written dictionaries.

For example, the New York referendum doesn’t even use the word “abortion,” complicating efforts to convey the intent — advocates complain that the official Korean translation means “dropping the fetus.” and can Nevada’s measurements be explained in the oral traditions of the Seminole and Shoshone tribes?

The Navajo and Hopi tribes get more material translated than most and have more than enough voters to influence the results. Under a federal court settlement with the Arizona Secretary of State, county election officials bring together community representatives to reach consensus on written translations. Navajo, Hopi and Spanish interpreters then do outreach and create spoken recordings for the touchpads also used by blind voters.

In most other places, other official materials in English, including explanations of the measures’ impacts, are not receiving the same attention, said Allison Neswood, an attorney at the Native American Rights Foundation, which monitors compliance.

“Native speakers should have access to all the information that English speakers have, including the language that explains ballot initiatives,” Neswood said.

Other tribes decided against written translations and instead stationed tribal translators at polling stations. The law allows this, despite questions about voting secrecy and potential bias that even interpreters say can be problematic.

For example, Colorado’s Amendment 79 seems relatively simple: a “yes” vote would enshrine “the right to abortion” in the state constitution.

But there is not a single word for abortion in the native language of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe of Montezuma County, Colorado, whose written dictionary has fewer than 10,000 words, so Ute language teacher Helen Munoz will personally translate it on the day of election.

A phrase describing abortion in Ute means “your baby, you’re killing it,” Munoz explained. Another points to terminating the pregnancy before the embryo develops, as in “your baby, before it grows, is done.”

“I would explain to them that this is what abortion is: it kills before reaching adulthood,” she said. “I would ask them, ‘What do you think? It is you who will enter that ballot box to mark the one you want. What do you think?'”

Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act requires translations in a county or city where the U.S. Census Bureau has determined that more than 10,000 people are voting-age citizens with “limited English proficiency” who speak the same language, or that such citizens They represent at least 5% of the population and their illiteracy rate exceeds the national illiteracy rate.

Most of these places should be translated into Spanish. Among states with reproductive rights measures this election, several Arizona counties are expected to provide translations into the languages ​​of the Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Paiute and Pueblo tribes. Other federally required languages ​​include Shoshone and Filipino in Nevada counties; Seminole in Florida; Ute in Colorado; and Chinese, Korean and Bengali in New York.

Spanish shouldn’t be that difficult, as it is a Latin-derived language like English, but even these can fail when election administrators rely on computer translations. Lawyer Cesar Ruiz says his group, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, is pushing for human translators. “It’s a constant work in progress,” he said.

In Florida, Aletris Farnam, Glades County elections supervisor, said Seminole leaders told her not to worry about written translations — a decision she wants documented so she’s protected if compliance issues arise.

“I met with the tribe and they told me that their language doesn’t convert like that — they don’t have enough words in their language to write election language,” Farnam said. “So what I do is hire a Creek translator to work at the polling station where all the Creeks vote.”

Munoz knows it’s important to keep her opinions to herself when people vote. She is a 76-year-old Ute Mountain Ute elder who said she has been doing this election work for 17 years. Still, cultural sensitivities come into play, and she said the Utes tend to be anti-abortion.

“Our tribe here doesn’t really believe in things like that,” she explained. “Young children – even if something bad happens, they get raped – it’s up to the mother to decide whether she wants to keep the child or give up, but we are conservative on abortion.”

New York’s Proposition 1 would protect against unequal treatment based on “sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy.” Supporters say this covers abortion. A judge refused the request for the official English description to explicitly state this. Official translations are using the word anyway.

Because the characters in the official Korean version roughly translate to “drop the fetus,” civic engagement coordinator Lucky Ho of the Asian American Federation says the group’s own materials use symbols that mean “to terminate the pregnancy.”

“It’s a more respectful way of talking about the body of the woman going through the experience,” explained Ho.

New York City goes beyond the federal mandate by also requiring translations in Arabic, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, Polish, Russian, Urdu and Yiddish. Literal, word-for-word translations don’t make sense in some of these languages, according to Asher Ross, senior strategist at the New York Immigrant Coalition, who has tried this in Creole.

“The phrase ‘pregnancy results’ doesn’t really translate, that was the feedback we received,” Ross said. “I don’t know how the final translation turned out, but they did the best they could.”

While some election departments struggle to meet language requirements, Coconino County, Arizona covers much more ground. Hire tribal interpreters and send a mobile unit to remote Navajo and Hopi meeting sites, first to register voters and explain what is being voted on, and later to accept their votes.

“If they need language assistance, they can go there and get it,” said county recorder Patty Hansen. “You can’t send the interpreter by mail, you know.”