NPR Airs Recording of a Real-Life Abortion on Radio

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NPR aired audio of a woman undergoing an abortion procedure in Michigan during an episode of Morning Edition Thursday.

The audio aired as part of the 11-minute segment and prompted outrage from conservatives on Twitter.

The segment came five days before midterm elections in which abortion has been a major issue since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion decision Roe v. Wade.

If Tudor Dixon is elected governor of Michigan by unseating incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, assuming the state legislature remains in GOP hands, Michigan could enact strict abortion restrictions. Additionally, there’s a referendum on the ballot, called Proposal 3, that would enshrine in the state constitution the right to an abortion thereby repealing a 1934 law that bans abortion (a judge has ruled it to be unconstitutional).

For a segment on abortion in the state ahead of that race, NPR aired a mother having the procedure at a reproductive health clinic outside Detroit, after about 11 weeks of pregnancy. The mother gave consent to reporter Kate Wells to record:

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: So I am just going to get you set up on the table and we’re going to do that sedation medicine.

PATIENT: Okay.

WOMAN: I’m gonna pull this out under your legs

WELLS: Most patients are partially awake during the procedures. They get IV medication for pain and anxiety. The lights are dimmed, there’s soothing music, actually feels a lot like a childbirth than a medical gown, your bare legs in stirrups and a person next to you saying “You can do this.”

BRANDI: Raise a hand and just keep breathing.

WELLS: That’s Brandi. She’s one of the staffers. Her job is to monitor vital signs, but it is also to hold the patient’s hand and talk her through this whether it’s a birth or an abortion. It’s often women guiding other women.

WOMAN: You’re going to hear this machine turn on now, okay? Makes a loud noise.

[Vacuum sound playing]

BRANDI: Blow it out, blow it out, breathe in, breathe in, blow it out. Listen to me. Blow it out. If you hold your breath it just makes it harder for your, keep breathing.

WELLS: Just keep breathing, Brandi tells her over and over. “I can’t,” the patient says at one point when the cramps get painful. “Yes you can,” Brandi tells her. “You’re doing it.”

BRANDI: You got this.

WELLS: And then within a just a couple of minutes it’s over.

NPR did not respond to a request for comment on its editorial decision to air the procedure.