Emily’s Abortion Video

Part of the past success of the anti-choice movement has been using the media to convince Americans that abortion is gross and dangerous. As Amanda Marcotte has explained, the anti-choice movement loves to focus particularly on third-trimester abortions, “because they are especially disgusting”.

But third-trimester procedures are only about one percent of abortions performed in the US; the overwhelming majority — 90 percent — occur during the first trimester, and are significantly safer and easier medical procedures. Most women can take a simple drug; if they opt for surgery, the procedure takes just a few minutes.

But conservative media and anti-choice activists have dominated the conversation about abortion, allowing myths, misinformation, and stigma to perpetuate.

This damaging deficit of accurate information in the media prompted Emily Letts, an abortion counselor, to film her own first-trimester abortion and post the video online. As she explained in an opinion piece for Cosmopolitan, the misinformation about abortion has overwhelmed the reality, and shame and fear of the procedure makes finding the facts more difficult.

Posting a video about your abortion may seem provocative. But the video is not graphic or scary. It shows Letts’ face as she softly hums to herself during the five minute procedure, quietly and calmly, and shows her speaking to the camera before and after the procedure about how she’s feeling. At the end, a month after the abortion, she says she knows that it was the right choice for her, and that she wanted to share her story.

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