Sarah McCammon Sarah McCammon is a National Desk correspondent with NPR News.
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Sarah McCammon

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Sarah McCammon 2018
Kara Frame/NPR

Sarah McCammon

Correspondent, National Desk

Sarah McCammon is a National Correspondent covering the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast for NPR. Her work focuses on political, social and cultural divides in America, including abortion and reproductive rights, and the intersections of politics and religion. She's also a frequent guest host for NPR news magazines, podcasts and special coverage.

During the 2016 election cycle, she was NPR's lead political reporter assigned to the Donald Trump campaign. In that capacity, she was a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast and reported on the GOP primary, the rise of the Trump movement, divisions within the Republican Party over the future of the GOP and the role of religion in those debates.

Prior to joining NPR in 2015, McCammon reported for NPR Member stations in Georgia, Iowa and Nebraska, where she often hosted news magazines and talk shows. She's covered debates over oil pipelines in the Southeast and Midwest, agriculture in Nebraska, the rollout of the Affordable Care Act in Iowa and coastal environmental issues in Georgia.

McCammon began her journalism career as a newspaper reporter. She traces her interest in news back to childhood, when she would watch Sunday-morning political shows – recorded on the VCR during church – with her father on Sunday afternoons. In 1998, she spent a semester serving as a U.S. Senate Page.

She's been honored with numerous regional and national journalism awards, including the Atlanta Press Club's "Excellence in Broadcast Radio Reporting" award in 2015. She was part of a team of NPR journalists that received a first-place National Press Club award in 2019 for their coverage of the Pittsburgh synagogue attack.

McCammon is a native of Kansas City, Mo. She spent a semester studying at Oxford University in the U.K. while completing her undergraduate degree at Trinity College near Chicago.

Story Archive

Friday

The J. Marvin Jones Federal Building and Mary Lou Robinson United States Courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, where U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk will decide on a lawsuit over the abortion drug mifepristone. Justin Rex/AP hide caption

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Justin Rex/AP

Thursday

Mifepristone (Mifeprex) and Misoprostol, the two drugs used in a medication abortion, are seen at the Women's Reproductive Clinic, which provides legal medication abortion services, in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on June 17, 2022. ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

A federal judge in Texas hears case that could force an abortion pill off the market

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Wednesday

Abortion rights advocates gather in front of the J. Marvin Jones Federal Building and Courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, on Wednesday. U.S. abortion opponents are hoping to get a national ban on a widely used abortion pill through their lawsuit against the FDA. Moises Avila/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Moises Avila/AFP via Getty Images

Federal judge in Texas hears case that could force a major abortion pill off market

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Judge will hear arguments in a case that could threaten access to medication abortion

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Monday

A Texas man sues ex-wife's friends for allegedly helping her get abortion pills

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Saturday

A Texas lawsuit could have far-reaching implications for abortion pill access

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Wednesday

Denied abortions, 5 Texas women sue the state saying the bans put them in danger

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Tuesday

Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, speaks near the Texas Capitol in Austin during an event to announce that her group is suing the state on behalf of five women and two doctors. Sarah McCammon/NPR hide caption

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Sarah McCammon/NPR

5 Texas women denied abortions sue the state, saying the bans put them in danger

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Saturday

A Walgreens pharmacy is pictured on Jan. 5 in New York City. Walgreens says it won't sell mifepristone in states where Republican attorneys general threatened legal action. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images hide caption

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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Thursday

While abortion restrictions spread across the U.S., access expands in Latin America

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Friday

Mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000 to induce first-trimester abortions in combination with a second drug, misoprostol. Charlie Neibergall/AP hide caption

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Charlie Neibergall/AP

Democratic state attorneys general sue Biden administration over abortion pill rules

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Misoprostol is currently approved by the FDA for use as an ulcer drug, not as a standalone abortion pill. Doctors already use it off-label for a variety of gynecological purposes beyond abortion, including for IUD insertion and for labor and delivery. Victor R. Caivano/AP hide caption

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Victor R. Caivano/AP

Why an ulcer drug could be the last option for many abortion patients

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Sunday

Lisa B. Stokes, 60, is a retired schoolteacher from Bamberg. Sarah McCammon/NPR hide caption

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A visit to Nikki Haley's hometown — where division 'still exists'

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Thursday

Protester outside the Kentucky Supreme Court chambers rally in favor of abortion rights as the Kentucky Supreme Court hears arguments whether to temporarily pause the state's abortion ban in Frankfort, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. Timothy D. Easley/AP hide caption

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Timothy D. Easley/AP

Wednesday

Nikki Haley makes her White House run official with Charleston event

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Thursday

Young Florida athletes won't have to share their menstrual cycle details to compete

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The part of the form that deals with menstrual cycles and had been optional. The Florida High School Athletic Association's board of directors voted to remove the questions about high school athletes' menstrual history. Clara-Sophia Daly/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images hide caption

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Clara-Sophia Daly/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Florida high school athletes won't have to report their periods after emergency vote

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Wednesday

Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

A Trump-appointed Texas judge could force a major abortion pill off the market

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Sunday

Since the Dobbs decision in June, clinics providing abortions in what are now restrictive states have had to reinvent what they do. Shannon Brewer, pictured here in 2019 at the Jackson Women's Health Organization, now runs a clinic in Las Cruces, N.M., where abortion is legal. Rogelio V. Solis/AP hide caption

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Rogelio V. Solis/AP

50 years after Roe v. Wade, many abortion providers are changing how they do business

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Friday

Protesters at the March for Life on Jan. 20, 2023, in Washington D.C. Eman Mohammed for NPR hide caption

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Eman Mohammed for NPR

At the first March for Life post-Roe, anti-abortion activists say fight isn't over

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Roe v. Wade has been overturned but the annual March for Life continues

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Thursday

What states are looking to do with abortion legislation in 2023

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