Excerpts Prepared by Dr. Neil Chadwick
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"Roe v. Wade" has been a hot topic of debate ever since the Supreme Court rendered the 1973 decision which legalized abortion. Amazing at it may seem, "Jane Roe", the plaintiff in this land mark case, subsequently renounced her former pro-abortion stance after becoming a Christian. Here are three clips referring to that story.
Who is "Jane Roe"?
by Douglas S. Wood, CNN Interactive (1998)
Anonymous no more, Norma McCorvey no longer supports abortion rights
Norma McCorvey is "Jane Roe," the pseudonym she assumed to remain anonymous as the lead plaintiff in the case that legalized abortion in the United States.
Once an abortion-rights supporter, the 50-year-old McCorvey has switched sides: She's now a vocal anti-abortion activist. She has started a ministry called Roe No More to fight against abortion rights with the aim of creating a mobile counseling center for pregnant women in Dallas.
She began her association with one of the United States' most contentious and volatile sociopolitical issues in 1970, when she became the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit filed to challenge the strict anti-abortion laws in Texas.
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which handed down its controversial ruling on January 22, 1973. The decision legalized the right to an abortion in all 50 states and sparked a political debate that remains charged to this day.
However, McCorvey, who was 21 when the case was filed and was on her third pregnancy, never had an abortion and gave birth to a girl, who was given up for adoption.
McCorvey went public with her identity in the 1980s and wrote a book about her life titled "I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice."
In the book, McCorvey, a ninth-grade dropout, describes a tough life, explaining that she suffered physical and emotional abuse as a child, spent some time in reform school in Gainesville, Texas, and was raped as a teen-ager. She was later beaten by a husband whom she married at age 16. She also tells of her alcohol and drug abuse, and experiences with lovers of both sexes.
Her first child, Melissa, was raised by her mother; her second child was raised by the father, and the couple agreed that McCorvey would never contact her.
She drifted through a series of dead-end jobs, including work as a bartender and a carnival barker. Once she went public with her story, she worked in several clinics where abortions were performed and did some public speaking, garnering publicity and a little bit of celebrity.
But in 1995, it all changed.
McCorvey was working at a Dallas women's clinic when the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue moved its offices next door. Initially, McCorvey hurled insults at the protesters.
The Rev. Phillip Benham, Operation Rescue's national director, described her as being "super hard-core" in her support of abortion rights. "She couldn't stand us. She hated us."
But then she and Benham struck up a relationship across the protest lines, when she would go outside to smoke.
Benham, an evangelical preacher, began discussing Christianity with McCorvey. She became friendly with some of Operation Rescue's office staff, and then she accepted an invitation from the daughter of the group's office manager to attend church. That night, she converted to Christianity.
She was baptized by Benham on August 8, 1995, in a swimming pool at a Dallas home. The baptism was filmed for national television.
Anti-abortion activists immediately heralded her conversion.
McCorvey publicly committed her life to "serving the Lord and helping women save babies." She took a job at Operation Rescue as a computer operator and was welcomed into the anti- abortion fold.
Abortion-rights advocates were not so happy about the change of heart by the woman who symbolized a woman's right to have an abortion. Sarah Weddington, the attorney who along with Linda Coffee represented the plaintiffs, now says she would have picked a different plaintiff, who might have better represented the case.
Coffee said she and Weddington met McCorvey via another attorney who specialized in adoptions. Coffee doesn't remember McCorvey having any hesitancy about wanting an abortion. "She didn't appear to be equivocal," she said. "At the time, she preferred a safe and legal abortion."
McCorvey had made one trip to an illegal abortion clinic in Dallas that had been shut down. But now, McCorvey says she wouldn't have had an abortion, anyway, because she was too far along in her pregnancy. "I can honestly say no, I wouldn't have," she said.
Advocates of banning abortion point to McCorvey as a symbol of hope.
"Norma's conversion gave us hope that the pro-life movement can and will be successful," said the Rev. Robert Schenck, general secretary of the National Clergy Council, a multidenominational group of conservative ministers.
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What Happened To Jane Roe?
By the Pro-Life Infonet (a compilation of pro-life news and educational information.)
Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano, the women whose Supreme Court cases (Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton respectively) made abortion legal on demand in the U.S., both now oppose abortion.
In an interview on 8/10/95 with WBAP radio in Dallas, McCorvey announced, "I'm pro-life. I think I've always been pro-life, I just didn't know it" (Reaves, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 8/11/95).
McCorvey, claimed before Roe that she had been raped, was 21 and pregnant when approached by attorney Sarah Weddington about suing for the right to have an abortion. McCorvey never had an abortion, because the decision came too late. She carried the baby to term and gave her up for adoption. McCorvey later admitted that she had not been raped (ibid., 8/11). ABC's "World News Tonight" and "Nightline" featured exclusive interviews with McCorvey, in which she renounced her role in the abortion advocacy movement and declared that "abortion is wrong."
"I think abortion is wrong. I think what I did with Roe vs. Wade was wrong, and I just have to take a pro-life position on [abortion]" ("World News Tonight," 8/10/95).
McCorvey was . . . haunted by simple things like empty swings in a playground. "They were swinging back and forth but they were all empty. And I just totally lost it, and I thought 'Oh my God. The swings are empty because there's no children, because they've all been aborted'" ("World News Tonight," 8/10/95).
"Abortion has been founded on lies and deception from the very beginning. All I did was lie about how I got pregnant. I was having an affair. It all started out as a little lie. I said what I needed to say. But, my little lie grew and grew and became more horrible with each telling. Sarah and Linda's (the pro-abortion attorneys in Roe) eyes seemed blinded to my obvious inability to tell the same story twice. It was good for the cause. It read well in the newspapers. With the help of willing media the credibility of well-known columnists, the lie became known as the truth these past 25 years."
"I did not go to the Supreme Court on behalf of a class of women. I wasn't pursuing any legal remedy to my unwanted pregnancy. I did not go to the federal courts for relief. I went to Sarah Weddington asking her if she knew how I could obtain an abortion. She and Linda Coffee said they didn't know where to get one. They lied to me just like I lied to them. Sarah already had an abortion. She knew where to get one. Sarah and Linda were just looking for somebody, anybody, to further their own agenda. I was their willing dupe. For this, I will forever be ashamed. But, my life has been restored to me, and I now have the privilege of speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves."
Sandra Cano: "I am against abortion. I never sought an abortion. I never had an abortion. Abortion is murder. For over 20 years, and against my will, my name has been synonymous with abortion. The Doe vs. Bolton case is based on deceit and fraud. I
never participated in this case. The Supreme Court had already made up their minds. They didn't care what was in the affidavits. I never wanted to be a part of this." (LeBoeuf, CHATTANOOGA FREE PRESS, 3/24/97).
(http://www.prolife.org/wcf). For more pro-life info visit the Ultimate Pro-Life Resource List at
http://www.prolife.org/ultimate
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"Won by Love"
"Jane Roe of Roe V. Wade, Speaks Out for the Unborn As She Shares Her New Conviction for Life", by Norma McCorvey and Gary Thomas
In Roe v. Wade, perhaps the most controversial United States Supreme Court decision, Norma McCorvey fought for and won the right to secure an abortion. Though she never had an abortion, under the pseudonym "Jane Roe," Norma reluctantly became the poster child for the pro-choice movement. Over the next two decades, Norma experienced the grief and despair of millions of women who chose to abort their babies; she witnessed the destruction of thousands of human lives in abortion clinics where she worked; and the "champion: of the pro-choice movement was soon being crushed by the weight of so much death, and so many ill-considered "choices." Finally, she began to break. She found out that the real choice she had been burdened with was not about abortion but about eternal life. It was a choice that would shock the world and change Norma's life forever.
b In this autobiography by Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" of "Roe v. Wade", you have the opportunity to read the behind-the-scenes report of one of this century's most surprising and public confessions of faith.
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