"SyntaxError: cannot use import statement outside of a module" when debugging a react.js application. Does not occur when I run the app normally

Question

I've run into a problem with my React application, so I'm trying to debug. Normally, the application runs as expected, but when I try to run the app within the debugger, the following error is thrown:

Uncaught SyntaxError %FILEPATH%/src/index.js:1 import React from 'react'

SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

This SO post asked about a similar problem, but I only receive the error message when using the debugger. Not at any other time. Last time, I had an error while debugging, it was a problem with my launch.json file. I am assuming the problem might be similar, but I need help figuring it out.

My current launch.json file looks like this:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "command": "npm start",
            "name": "Run npm start",
            "request": "launch",
            "type": "node-terminal"
        },
        {
            "type": "node",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Launch Program",
            "skipFiles": [
                "<node_internals>/**"
            ],
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}\\frontend\\src",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}\\frontend\\src\\index.js"
        }
    ]
}

Also, I'm using the node.js debugger that comes built into VSCode