Meet Jane Roe

On January 22, 1973 two landmark decisions were handed down by the Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade granted access to abortion on demand up to the first trimester of pregnancy and then made abortion in the second and third trimesters contingent upon the health of the mother. The second decision handed down that day was Doe v. Bolton, which effectively allowed abortion up until birth by its incredibly broad definition of "health":

We agree with the District Court, 319 F. Supp., at 1058, that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - relevant to the well-being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.

The end result of these two decisions was that all women were now legally able to receive an abortion up until the moment of birth, if their doctor agreed that their physical, emotional, familial or psychological health were at stake. By now we all know the ramifications of these two decisions. In the past 39 years, approximately 50 million babies have been aborted. There are plenty of topics to delve into when discussing abortion, an endless supply of statistics to consider, but at the heart of this controversy were two women forever known as Jane Roe and Mary Doe. Their court cases have forever altered the moral landscape in the United States and likewise, they have forever altered the lives of these two women. Today I want to write about the story of Jane Roe, also known as Norma L. McCorvey.



Meet Jane Roe

Norma L. McCorvey was born on September 22, 1947, in Simmesport, Louisiana. Her father passed away when she was 13 years old and following his death she was raised by her mother, a violent alcoholic. At the age of 14 she dropped out of high school and at 16 she married Woody McCorvey, but the two divorced after only two years of marriage when Woody became violent towards her. Their marriage produced one child, Cheryl, who was raised primarily by Norma's mother. A year after Cheryl's birth, Norma became pregnant again, but chose to give the baby up for adoption.

In 1969, at the age of 21, Norma became pregnant for a third time and at the insistence of friends, asserted that the pregnancy was the result of a gang rape. At the time, Texas law permitted abortion in the case of incest or rape, but her story could not be confirmed and she was denied the abortion. After making an unsuccessful attempt to obtain an illegal abortion, Norma found herself in the office of attorneys Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee. Weddington and Coffee were searching for a case that would allow them to challenge Texas' anti-abortion laws and Norma McCorvey provided them exactly what they needed. A woman who was pregnant and didn't want to be.

Following Roe v. Wade, Norma began living a homosexual lifestyle with her partner Connie in Dallas, TX.  In the 1980's her identity as Jane Roe was revealed and she became a vocal advocate for the Pro-Choice movement and a target for Pro-Life extremists.  Throughout the 1980's and early 1990's Norma worked in abortion clinics in a variety of roles, sometimes as a receptionist and sometimes as a counselor.  In a 1994 interview with the New York Times, Norma had this to say about abortion:

I'm a simple woman with a ninth-grade education who wants women not to be harassed or condemned. It's no glamorous thing to go through an abortion. I never had one, but I've worked in three clinics and I know. The anti-choice people all ask me, When do I think life begins? I don't know, I'm not a rocket scientist. I just wanted the privilege of a clean clinic to get the procedure done. I don't require that much in my life. With Connie, my cats, and my plants, I'm a pretty happy girl. I just never had the privilege to go into an abortion clinic, lay down and have an abortion. That's the only thing I never had.

After publicly advocating for abortion for years and after penning her autobiography in 1994, entitled, I Am Roe, Norma's life took a drastic change. In 1994, an anti-abortion group named Operation Rescue, moved into the office complex where Norma was working at an abortion clinic.  While she initially viewed the members of Operation Rescue with disdain, she eventually developed a friendship with several of the protestors and over the course of time, she began to be affected by their words.  On August 8, 1995, Norma McCorvey was baptized and shortly thereafter she entered into the Roman Catholic Church.

While Norma's attitudes toward Christ changed at that moment, her opinions on abortion were slower to change.  In her second book, Won By Love, she recounts the moment when she realized the truth about abortion:

I was sitting in the O.R.'s offices when I noticed a fetal development poster. The progression was so obvious, the eyes were so sweet. It hurt my heart, just looking at them. I ran outside and finally, it dawned on me. 'Norma', I said to myself, 'They're right'. I had worked with pregnant women for years. I had been through three pregnancies and deliveries myself. I should have known. Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embyro, and I said to myself, that's a baby! It's as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth--that's a baby!

I felt crushed under the truth of this realization. I had to face up to the awful reality. Abortion wasn't about 'products of conception'. It wasn't about 'missed periods'. It was about children being killed in their mother's wombs. All those years I was wrong. Signing that affidavit, I was wrong. Working in an abortion clinic, I was wrong. No more of this first trimester, second trimester, third trimester stuff. Abortion -- at any point--was wrong. It was so clear. Painfully clear.

Why am I telling you about Norma McCorvey? I chose to write about Norma today because over the past 39 years, there have been 50 million times when a woman made the decision to abort her baby. While that number is absolutely devastating, Norma's story should encourage us, because for Norma, the blinders came off and the reality set in. Norma's story isn't a fairytale. What it is however, is a testament to the fact that love, care and compassion can break through to even the most dedicated abortion advocate. This is a fight worth fighting. Roe v. Wade won't be overturned tomorrow, but each day brings with it another possibility to save a life and to love a Norma.    

Sources and Recommended Reading  
Roe No More Ministries
American Family Association Journal
People Magazine
The New York Times
The Washington Post
Pray for Carhart