Going Public With Their Private Choices

What happens when a woman comes out and says that she has had an abortion?

Author Angela Bonavoglia interviewed 25 women and men for her book, “The Choices We Made.” Here are some of their stories:

* Whoopi Goldberg, actress: “People would say, ‘Oh, you did that?’ And I’d say, ‘Yeah. But you liked me up until five minutes ago before you heard that, so obviously it didn’t make me a nasty, horrible person, did it?’ ”

* The Rev. Christine Grimbol, pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Sag Harbor, N.Y.: “I’m probably only beginning to know what risks I’m taking by speaking out on abortion. There are people who would rather I not do this. Some write to me and say, ‘I’m praying for your soul.’ ”

* Gloria Steinem, feminist: “When I finally told my mother about that abortion, the motive was not coercion but hope. The first issue of Ms. magazine was going to include a list of many notable American women who admitted that they had had abortions and asked for a repeal of all anti-abortion laws. I couldn’t ask others to be truthful if I was not, so before I signed, I had to tell my family. We became closer--thanks to feminism, not to force.”

* Patricia Tyson, director of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights: “I talked to my two older sisters. I think my sisters told my mom, but me and my mother have an unwritten agreement that we won’t talk about it. We talked about it when I decided to go on the “Today” show, and that was it. She just said to me, ‘I don’t remember.’ And that’s OK, that’s really OK. I don’t need to force her to remember those things if she has decided not to remember.”

* Norma McCorvey, alias Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade: “I started coming out as Jane Roe in 1980, then I’d go back and hide in my house and come out on the next anniversary of the decision. I was always very timid, very shy. Then, beginning in 1989, I came out much stronger. What changed? They shot at me.”

It was April 4, 1989 at 4:10 a.m. in Dallas when someone shot at McCorvey’s car and house. She was unharmed.

“I never considered myself a threat, up until they shot up the house. I had gotten some hate mail. I’d found baby clothes thrown in my front yard. I’d had a few notes here and there, never threatening my life, just like, ‘Baby Killer,’ ‘Murderess,’ you know.

“The shooting made me more determined to be more public. It would have been easy to take the safe way out, to hide, but I’m not a person who takes the easy way out. I’ve never been in any kind of safe situation in my life.”