National Public Radio (NPR) broadcasted chilling audio Thursday morning of a Michigan woman undergoing an abortion at 11 weeks gestation, with a description by a reporter who is heard saying, “It actually feels a lot like a childbirth.”
In the disturbing audio, the woman is heard crying and moaning as the large vacuum is also heard suctioning out her baby.
Warning: Disturbing
I almost didn't want to tweet this but it's something everyone needs to know. NPR on the radio this morning played audio of a woman getting an abortion. You can hear the vacuum turning on, crying, moaning, and the doctor telling her it's done.
Warning: It's tough to listen to. pic.twitter.com/nlSNz0m5Ka
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 3, 2022
“I almost didn’t want to tweet this but it’s something everyone needs to know,” X Strategies senior digital strategist Greg Price posted to Twitter Thursday. “NPR on the radio this morning played audio of a woman getting an abortion. You can hear the vacuum turning on, crying, moaning, and the doctor telling her it’s done. Warning: It’s tough to listen to.”
“Most patients are partially awake during the procedures,” the reporter states in the audio. “They get IV medication for pain and anxiety, the lights are dimmed, there’s soothing music – it actually feels a lot like a childbirth.”
The reporter continues to liken the abortion – the elective ending of the life of an unborn baby – to the birth of a child.
The broadcast comes as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) and her allies at Planned Parenthood have been marketing Proposal (Prop) 3, an amendment that would codify Roe v. Wade and also allow children to obtain “gender-affirming” hormones and surgeries without parental consent under the banner of “reproductive care.”
“Prop 3 goes far beyond the controlling Roe-Casey precedent,” wrote Margot Cleveland, senior legal correspondent at the Federalist. “If passed, the constitutional amendment would create an extreme regime in Michigan of abortion on demand, at any time, for any reason, without informed or parental consent, and paid for by taxpayers.”
NPR plays horrifying audio of an abortion to promote Michigan’s Prop 3 https://t.co/HJd4T8Jeqn
— Live Action News (@LiveActionNews) November 4, 2022
In reactions to the broadcast, Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) Director of Medical Affairs Ingrid Skop, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., an OB/GYN who has delivered more than 5,000 babies, detailed what occurs during an abortion, while CLI Director of Life Sciences Tara Sander Lee, Ph.D., provides the science behind the life of a child at 11 weeks gestation.
Skop said that while the reporter described the abortion as feeling “a lot like a childbirth,” what listeners heard is actually vastly different:
A sharp-toothed grasping instrument, called a tenaculum, is used to grasp the cervix, providing traction as the abortionist inserts progressively larger metal dilators to stretch open the cervix. Then, as we heard on NPR, the electric vacuum aspirator is turned on so that the abortionist can suction out the unborn baby.
“Planned Parenthood describes the procedure as using “gentle suction to remove the pregnancy from your uterus,” Skop noted:
However, Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, has explained that an electric vacuum aspirator has up to 10 to 20 times the suction power of a household vacuum. That’s likely why we hear the mother groaning in pain in the NPR recording. Suction that powerful will hurt as it rips out the adherent placenta and unborn child, even after the mother receives pain medication.
“Tragically, while the mother’s physical pain may be over, there is no guarantee that the emotional pain will subside quickly,” Skop added. “We know from compassionately listening to women who experienced abortion, as well as a review of the scientific literature, that many women live with regret, anxiety, depression, substance or alcohol abuse, and the potential for self-harm for months or years following the abortion.”
“Surely, our society can offer better solutions to women,” Skop stated.
Sander Lee noted NPR used the euphemism of the abortion industry, i.e., “pregnancy tissue,” to describe the unborn baby.
“By 11 weeks,” she explained, the baby “already had fingers and toes, displayed a preference for using their right or left hand when sucking his thumb, and had heart activity resembling that of a newborn.”
“By 11 weeks, the baby already had 4,000 distinct anatomical parts, or 90% of the named body parts found in an adult,” Sander Lee observed. “Science confirms that an unborn baby’s heart is beating rhythmically by 6 weeks. By 11 weeks, the age of the baby aborted in the NPR broadcast, the baby had a heart rate of 168 beats per minute and the heart had already beat over 9 million times.”
The CLI science expert added the baby whose life was ended Thursday morning “was alive and active,” and moving continuously, save for moments of stillness that last for not more than 13 minutes at a time.
“My heart goes out to this woman who chose to end the life of her own child and then share this experience on national radio—this is a moment of deep sadness,” Sander Lee said.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser reacted to the audio with the assertion the broadcast reveals the radical extremism of pro-abortion Democrats:
This heartbreaking audio exposes the brutal truth about abortion – the destruction of unborn children and exploitation of their mothers for profit. We can just imagine the last moments of the unborn child, who has a beating heart by six weeks, is forming unique fingerprints by 10 weeks, and can feel excruciating pain at least by 15 weeks. And we may never know the fate of the unnamed mother, but we know abortion can result in life-threatening complications and long-term emotional and mental health impacts.
“Pro-abortion Democrats have avoided truths like these at all costs on the campaign trail as they dodge questions about their extreme record and whether there are any limits on abortion they would support,” Dannenfelser added. “Exposure to the harsh reality of abortion is important for voters as they consider their choices next Tuesday.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].