Talking about abortion on NPR

Abortionist Susan Wicklund is interviewed by Diane Rehm on National Public Radio about her newly released book entitled "This Common Secret." Wicklund does abortions up to 14 weeks.

After the first segment with Wicklund, Rehm interviews Lori Campbell. Campbell has an article in the January 2008 issue of Vogue magazine where she discusses her partial-birth abortion. She supposedly obtained a partial-birth abortion in 1998 after her water broke at 22 weeks because of an incompetent cervix and doctors told her and her husband the child had little to no chance of surviving. So instead of waiting for the child to die, Lori decided to have a partial-birth abortion. Her stated reasoning for why she got a PBA was because she didn't want to have a baby that would suffer and die and that it would be more like a miscarriage instead of the death of a child.

Campbell goes on to claim the term "partial-birth abortion" didn't exist in 1998. This is an incredibly ignorant claim considering Charles Canady introduced the original partial-birth abortion ban act in 1995 and Congress passed it that same year. Congress also passed another partial-birth abortion ban in 1997 and there was a segment on 60 Minutes in 1996 on partial-birth abortion.

After the interview with Campbell, there's a question and answer segment with Wicklund from listeners.

When asked about people who think all life is precious starting at conception, Wicklund says she believes there is "not a human being existing in that embryo." When a caller challenges her on this later and Wicklund says you have to define life. She then says, "everyone's entitled to their own beliefs but after seeing what I've seen in the clinics and with the women that the embryo isn't an independent life."

Wicklund is later asked about what the difference between a 14-week-old child and a 21-week-old fetus is and why she wouldn't do abortions at 21 weeks. Her response starts with her saying, "A 14 week-old embryo, fetus, whatever you want to call it...." as if both terms could be correct.

Her reasons are that there is a different kind of procedure, a size difference, there is a potential the 21 week fetus could feel pain and doctors don't know when viability is.

Towards the end of the interview, Wicklund is also asked about how her work played a part in the break up of her marriage and how she was fired from another abortion clinic because she didn't want to be solely a technician (meaning having minimal interactions with the patients) while the clinic apparently did.