I thought this was a pretty interesting piece by a pro choice woman from the site Jezebel about speaking out publically about an abortion. Many of the things she says can definitely apply to the pro life side as well..I have written about here.

Why I Won’t Come Out About My Abortion

My abortion is no one's business. My abortion is something that should be between me and my doctor, and going public with the details in an attempt to destigmatize choice could ruin my career. So why would I ever "come out" about it?

Let's get the ironic part out of the way first: I'm a visible pro-choice advocate and public figure, and when I was in my twenties, I had an abortion, which I am not going to talk about. Now would be the time to point that in talking about how I'm not going to talk about my abortion, I'm actually drawing more attention to the fact that I terminated a pregnancy — which would be a fair point if this was going to be a philosophical piece about pregnancy termination. What's at issue here isn't the fact that I had an abortion; what's at issue is women's privacy, and their right to choose to keep things to themselves without betraying feminism and women everywhere.

I've been thinking about privacy quite a bit since Anderson Cooper came out of the closet after years of pressure from groups who accused him of doing gay the wrong way. Sure, naysayers were probably right that Cooper's a handsome, glamorous celebrity that could help inspire others to come out without shame. But, the guy's got his own life to live. His personal life shouldn't be beholden to opinion polls. No one's should. Which is why I wonder if the stories behind projects like the newest I Had An Abortion initiative sometimes do more harm than good.

Public pressure to reveal extremely private information, especially if advocates think that information could promote a social good, comes from a well-intentioned place. Just as pro-gay rights folks who nudged Cooper out of the closet thought they were doing a good thing (even though it might not have seemed as fantastic from Cooper's perspective), so too are women's health advocates who aggressively promote "coming out" about abortion think they're increasing visibility and acceptance of the procedure, when they're really placing the onus on women to sacrifice themselves, their careers, their families, or their safety on the altar of ideology, especially if the woman is the wrong kind of woman or having an abortion for the wrong sort of reasons. Wearing a tee-shirt that reads "I had an abortion" might remind the average Joe Abstinence Only Education that all kinds of women have abortions and they're not all irresponsible sluts trying to erase their mistakes by taking the easy way out, and that they don't all look like Courtney Love during the nineties. But coming out pressure from women's groups places many women in an awkward position: do what's being asked of you for the greater good, and all of the risk falls on your shoulders, while all of the reward goes to the movement. That's hardly incentive to come forward. Remaining silent is an act of self-preservation.

You can read the rest here: http://jezebel.com/5924605/why-i-wont-come-out-about-my-abortion/