'Truly sick and demented': NPR trounced for airing 'nauseating' audio of an abortion, comparing procedure to childbirth

NPR aired audio of a woman enduring an abortion. The audio that played on Thursday morning featured disturbing sounds of an unborn child being vacuumed from the womb and the mother crying in pain.

NPR claimed that abortion seekers have been traveling to Michigan in "record numbers" since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

The NPR article featured a woman named "Melissa" who allegedly traveled from Ohio to Michigan to get an abortion. Melissa went to Northland Family Planning — a clinic outside of Detroit.

Melissa said she got pregnant while she was going through a divorce. Melissa — who already has two children — said she "can't physically, financially, or mentally handle two more kids."

Melissa claimed there were "huge waiting lists" at abortion clinics in Ohio — where abortions are banned after six weeks. She went to Northland Family Planning when she was 14 weeks pregnant.

Journalist Kate Wells of Michigan Radio visited the Northland Family Planning to interview women seeking abortions.

Inside the abortion clinic, there were signs that read: "Good women get abortions," and "A lot of beautiful, wise women have been here before and are here today."

Wells noted that Melissa's abortion doctor's purple hair "helped nervous young patients relax when she walked in and they saw, 'Oh, their abortion doctor was a woman with cool, purple hair.'"

Wells went inside the clinic to document the abortion procedure of an 11-week-old preborn child with a second pregnant mother, who was not named.

Wells compared abortion to childbirth.

"Most patients are partially awake during the procedures. They get IV medication for pain and anxiety. The lights are dimmed. There's soothing music," Wells said. "It actually feels a lot like a childbirth — the medical gown, your bare legs in stirrups, and a person next to you, saying, you can do this."

NPR shared audio of a vacuum sucking out the unborn child from the mother's womb.

Wells described the unborn baby as "pregnancy tissue."

"Then, a roar of noise as the vacuum aspirator turned on," Wells wrote in an article that was published last month. "The machine uses gentle suction to remove the pregnancy tissue from the patient’s uterus through a thin tube."

During the abortion, the mother is heard moaning in pain.

A nurse tells the woman, "You did good."

Laughter is heard in the room where an abortion had just been performed.

(WARNING: Graphic audio)

Reactions on Twitter blasted NPR for airing the "nauseating" audio of an abortion.

Pro-life advocate Obianuju Ekeocha: "Gross… @NPR aired on radio a real abortion procedure where you can hear the vacuum aspirator, the moaning of the mother, the blasé attitude of the abortionist and the despicable NPR narrator who likens abortion to childbirth. A baby is being killed here."

March for Life president Jeanne F. Mancini: "My prayer is often that the truth about abortion is 'brought into the light' but nothing prepared me for what this audio recording of an abortion would sound like."

Pro-life advocate Lila Rose: "This is what Hell sounds like. NPR’s glorification of slaughtering TWIN babies. The sound of their deaths. Pure Hell."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): "The Democrat Party and their media mouthpieces are completely radical on the issue of abortion. This is absolutely heartbreaking."

Columnist T. Becket Adams: "You may recoil in horror, but this is a devastatingly effective pro-life ad. Likely unintentional, but devastatingly effective nonetheless."

Editor Ben Kew: "The state-funded National Public Radio (NPR) is now pushing their pro-abortion stance by playing audio of a woman getting the procedure and thus ending a human life."

Political commentator Michael Knowles: "This is the most nauseating thing I've ever heard: the audio of a mother murdering her own child through abortion, aired on @NPR. Listener discretion strongly advised."

Columnist Ingrid JacquesIngrid Jacques: "This is horrible to listen to, and I think the decision to run it is concerning. It first aired on my local Michigan NPR station. I was shocked and sickened. And then when I heard it start up this morning on the national program, I turned it off. Once was more than enough."

Reporter Henry Rodgers: "This is just so repulsive. Truly sick and demented."

Attorney Matt Rooney: "Go ahead. Try to defend this after listening to it."

Podcaster Tim Pool: "This kinda s**t turns people pro-life."