A patient advocate and abortion counselor for Cherry Hill Women’s Shelter in New Jersey says she decided to film herself having an abortion (footage is not graphic), and share it with the public in order to show her support of other women who undergo abortions, according to Cosmopolitan Magazine on Tuesday.
Emily Letts, 25, says she decided she wanted an abortion after finding out she was several weeks pregnant. Letts said that she wasn’t ready for the responsibility of having a baby and wanted to share a “positive” abortion experience. Letts admits she didn’t use protection while also acknowledging the hypocrisy in that behavior given that she’s a sex educator. According to Cosmo, Letts said she didn’t use hormonal birth control because she feared “weight [gain] and depression.”
Letts says that she decided to use the experience to help her relate to the women she was helping. Letts thought the video would empower women who want to get an abortion feel comfortable that the procedure is not “scary or painful.” Letts hopes the video helps to take away the mystery and stigma of an abortion. Letts contends that a first trimester abortion is “safer than giving birth” and “takes three to five minutes.”
Letts also described the abortion experience as “positive.”
Lets said, “I remember breathing and humming through it like I was giving birth. I know that sounds weird, but to me, this was as birth-like as it could be.”
Although Letts has had some negative feedback, including alleged death threats, she describes most of the feedback as “breathtakingly supportive.”
Letts entered the video into the Abortion Care Network’s Stigma Busting video competition and was among the two winners chosen.