When Emily Letts found out she was pregnant last November she knew she would get an abortion. In an effort to help inform women facing a similar situation, the 25-year-old abortion counselor decided to film herself undergoing the procedure. Reactions to the award-winning clip, however, have been quite mixed.
As the video went viral Tuesday, some deemed Letts a “trailblazer” and called her “brave" for sharing what she calls a "positive abortion story." Anti-abortion advocates and right-wing media, on the other hand, labeled the video “horrible” and “disturbing.”
A headline for The Gateway Pundit read: "HORROR! Far Left Activist FILMS Her Own Abortion!"
President of the National Right to Life Committee, Carol Tobias, also chimed in with criticism. "It is a sad commentary on our nation that someone can be rewarded for filming an event that takes the life of an innocent unborn human being," she told Fox News on Tuesday. "We pray that in the coming years, she will understand and be able to accept the ramifications of her actions."
The non-graphic video, which first appeared on YouTube in March, shows Letts from waist up in a hospital gown talking and humming through her surgical abortion at Cherry Hill Women’s Center in New Jersey, where she works as a counselor.
Letts, who says she wasn’t using any birth control when she got pregnant, explained her reasons for filming the procedure in an essay published this week on Cosmopolitan.com.
“I searched the Internet, and I couldn’t find a video of an actual surgical procedure in the clinic that focused on the woman’s experience. We talk about abortion so much and yet no one really knows what it actually looks like," she wrote.
The Guttmacher Institute estimates that one in three women will have an abortion by age 45. In her video description, Letts stresses the clip simply shows her story.
"This is ONLY my story. I do not pretend that it is anything more or anything less," she wrote. "I do not speak for everyone on this sensitive subject and I respect everyone's opinions as long as they do not force them onto others."
While the video below does not contain any graphic content, the clip may not be suitable for all audiences.