Priests for Life holds day of mourning for baby whose abortion was on NPR broadcast

A Catholic pro-life group held a day of mourning Saturday for the baby whose death by abortion was recently broadcast live on NPR.

Priests for Life also christened the baby “Amanda Marie,” meaning “she who ought to be loved,” according to a press release from the organization.

On Nov. 3, in the lead-up to an election in Michigan that offered voters a proposal to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right in the state, NPR aired live audio of an abortion procedure at the Northland Family Planning clinic in Sterling, Michigan.

In the audio, NPR reporter Katie Wells interviewed several women about abortion before broadcasting audio of an unidentified mother receiving an abortion at 11 weeks. The audio had the sound of a vacuum being used, the mother moaning and a staffer named Brandy urging the mother to “just keep breathing.”

After the abortion, Brandy and abortion provider Audrey Lance tell the mother, “You did it!”

In an open letter addressed to the child’s mother, the abortionists, NPR and the public, Priests for Life urged for repentance.

Expressing compassion toward the mother, the letter read in part: “Dearest Mother, our hearts go out to you, our hearts weep for you, and your Child. We know that you were already in a difficult place interiorly to even consider abortion and, now, having ended the life of your Child, you are most surely in an even darker, more difficult place (and, if you do not recognize that yet, dear Mother, in due time, if you are honest, you will realize that you are hurting, deeply hurting).”

“As many women who have had abortions have said, abortion does not merely hurt women, it destroys them,” the portion of the letter addressed to the mother added.

The letter reserved special condemnation for both the abortionists and NPR, claiming the nonprofit media organization “missed something” when it neglected in its report to “describe what was removed from this woman.”

“We have similar words to you as we do to the abortionist and those who worked with him/her to kill Little Amanda: shame on you, NPR, for airing the brutal murder of a Baby in the womb, shameon you for dishonoring Baby Amanda Marieby flaunting her death over the air! May God have mercy on your soul! Your actions were beyonddisgraceful (and that you used taxpayers dollars for such an atrocity makes it even worse)!” the letter read in part.

Father Frank Pavone, who serves as the national director of Priests for Life, said in a statement that his organization was “asking every pro-life individual, organization and lawmaker to mark the day with fasting and special prayers, including Masses” on Dec. 3, a month after the audio was recorded.

“The recording picks up the moans of the mother, but her child’s scream is silent,” Pavone said.

“The staffer with the mom says ‘You did it,’ and ‘You did great,’ when the killing was complete. There is no mention of the baby who has just died in a brutal way at 11 weeks. The baby’s humanity is not even an afterthought,” Pavone continued, adding that Priests for Life were aiming to “make a big deal of what this broadcast trivialized.”

NPR did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by time of publication.