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StoryCorps

12 Feet From a Bomb

StoryCorps

NPR

Society & Culture

4.73.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2024

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On the morning of January 29th, 1998, a terrorist bombed the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing a police officer and severely injuring a nurse. Both victims risked their own safety to show up for others—despite having different beliefs—and will forever be linked by the same act of political violence.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, I'm Dave Iceay, founder of StoryCorps.

0:03.0

This message comes from NPR sponsor Subaru and the 2024 Subaru Cross Trek Wilderness.

0:08.8

Explore new territory with 9.3 inches of ground clearance, a stunning 11.6 inch touch screen and eyesight driver assist

0:16.4

technology. Adventure on the Edge. Well, it is a massive scene, I mean, police everywhere, fire everywhere, and a building that is looking to me to have been bombed.

0:31.0

Windows are shattered, and the awning is torn and ripped apart.

0:37.1

On the morning of January 29th, 1998, a terrorist set off a homemade bomb filled with nails and gravel at a women's health

0:45.3

center in Birmingham, Alabama. It was one of the few clinics that provided abortions

0:50.1

in the state. One of the nurses was actually on her way into the clinic and she has been injured.

0:56.0

I just saw a body of...

1:01.0

That nurse was Emily Lyons.

1:04.0

I thought I'd have a boring life.

1:07.0

When we married, we were just, for lack of a better word, nobody's.

1:11.0

And then all of a sudden, we were on the morning shows

1:15.2

and newspapers and everything else.

1:18.1

Emily survived with lifelong injuries,

1:21.2

and the clinic reopened shortly after in another location.

1:24.9

But one person did die in the bombing, a police officer who was working security at the clinic,

1:30.8

Robert Sanderson, known to everyone as Sandy.

1:35.0

He was the first person to be killed in an abortion clinic bombing in the US,

1:39.0

and his beliefs on the issue might not be what you expect. He never talked about his views at work,

1:45.0

but I'm pretty sure it was after the bomb

1:47.0

that I learned that he and his wife were not pro-choice.

...

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