Norma Leah Nelson McCorvey (; September 22, 1947 – February 18, 2017), also known by the pseudonym Jane Roe, was the plaintiff in the landmark 1973 American legal case Roe v. Wade in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individual state laws banning abortion were unconstitutional.

Later in her life, McCorvey became an Evangelical Protestant and in her remaining years, a Catholic, and took part in the anti-abortion movement. McCorvey stated then that her involvement in Roe was "the biggest mistake of [her] life". However, in the Nick Sweeney documentary AKA Jane Roe, McCorvey said, in what she called her "deathbed confession", that "she never really supported the anti-abortion movement" and that she had been paid for her professed anti-abortion sentiments.

Early life

Norma Leah Nelson was born in Simmesport, Louisiana, and spent her early childhood at her family's residence in Lettsworth in Pointe Coupee Parish. Later in her childhood, the family moved to Houston. Norma's father, Olin Nelson, a TV repairman, left the family when she was 13 years old, and her parents subsequently divorced.

Norma's troubles with the law began at age ten when she robbed the cash register at a gas station and ran away to Oklahoma City with a friend. Norma was arrested and taken to court, where she was declared a ward of the state and a judge sent her to a Catholic boarding school, though she did not become Catholic until 1998.

While working at a restaurant, Norma met Elwood "Woody" McCorvey (born 1940), and she married him in 1964 when she was still 16. She later left him after he allegedly assaulted her. She moved in with her mother and gave birth to her first child, Melissa, in 1965. After Melissa's birth, Norma developed a severe drinking and drug problem.

The following year, Norma again became pregnant and gave birth to a baby, Jennifer, who was placed for adoption.

Roe v. Wade

In 1969, at the age of 21, Norma McCorvey became pregnant a third time and returned to Dallas. According to McCorvey, friends advised her to assert falsely that she had been raped by a group of black men and that she could thereby obtain a legal abortion under Texas law, which prohibited the procedure under most circumstances; sources differ over whether Texas law had such a rape exception. Due to a lack of police evidence or documentation, the scheme was not successful, and McCorvey later said it was a fabrication. She attempted to obtain an illegal abortion, but the recommended clinic had been closed down by authorities. who were looking for pregnant women seeking abortions. The Roe v. Wade case (Henry Wade was the district attorney) took three years of trials to reach the Supreme Court in 1973; McCorvey never attended a single trial. During the course of the lawsuit, McCorvey gave birth and placed the baby for adoption.

After the Roe v. Wade decision, McCorvey revealed to the press that she was "Jane Roe", saying she sought an abortion because she was unemployable and greatly depressed. In 1983, McCorvey told the press that she had been raped; in 1987, she said the rape claim was untrue. She reflected that "when someone's pregnant with a baby, and they don't want that baby, that person develops knowing they're not wanted."

After her public revelation in 2021, Thornton stated she was "neither pro-life nor pro-choice". McCorvey converted to Evangelical Protestantism and was baptized on August 8, 1995, by Benham, in a Dallas, Texas, backyard swimming pool—an event that was filmed for national television. Two days later, she announced that she had quit her job at an abortion clinic and had become an advocate of Operation Rescue's campaign to make abortion illegal.

On August 17, 1998, McCorvey was received into the Catholic Church in a Mass celebrated by Father Edward Robinson and concelebrated by Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church in Dallas. McCorvey's second book, Won by Love, described her religious conversion and was published in 1998. In the book, she said that her change of heart occurred in 1995, when she saw a fetal development poster in an Operation Rescue office.

In 2004, McCorvey sought to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, saying there was now evidence that the procedure harms women, but the case was ultimately dismissed in 2005. On January 22, 2008, McCorvey endorsed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul because of his anti-abortion position.

McCorvey remained active in anti-abortion demonstrations, including one she participated in before President Barack Obama's commencement address to the graduates of the University of Notre Dame. McCorvey was arrested on the first day of Senate hearings for the confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor after McCorvey and another protester began shouting during Senator Al Franken's opening statement. McCorvey appeared in the 2013 film Doonby, in which she delivers an anti-abortion message. She is also the subject of Joshua Prager's 2021 book, The Family Roe: An American Story.

Personal life with Connie Gonzalez

Soon after giving birth a third time, as Roe v. Wade made its way through the courts, McCorvey met and began a long-term relationship with Connie Gonzalez. although she subsequently said that her religious conversion to Evangelical Christianity, and renunciation of her sexuality, were financially motivated. McCorvey moved out of the house she shared with Gonzalez in 2006, shortly after Gonzalez suffered a stroke. In an interview conducted for the film shortly before her death, in what she referred to as her "deathbed confession", McCorvey said her anti-abortion activism had been "all an act", which she did because she was paid, saying she did not care whether a woman got an abortion: "I was the big fish. I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they'd put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That's what I'd say." McCorvey added: "If a young woman wants to have an abortion, that's no skin off my ass. That's why they call it choice."

Robert Schenck, a formerly anti-abortion evangelical pastor who worked with McCorvey, verified the claim made in the documentary of her receiving financial compensation. He admitted his group paid her to speak against abortion: "Her name and photo would command some of the largest windfalls of dollars for my group and many others, but the money we gave her was modest. More than once, I tried to make up for it with an added check, but it was never fair." According to tax documents, McCorvey received at least $450,000 from anti-abortion groups during her years as an activist. Schenck said he was surprised that McCorvey later stated she favored abortion rights, although he said he knew she "harboured doubts about the pro-life message she was telegraphing".

Pavone, who had a decades-long association with McCorvey, said she was not on the payroll of his organization, Priests for Life, and he did not believe her activism was disingenuous: "I can even see her being emotionally cornered to get those words out of her mouth, but the things that I saw in 22 years with her—the thousands and thousands of conversations that we had—that was real." He later wrote, "So abortion supporters are claiming Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, wasn't sincere in her conversion. She was. I was her spiritual guide for 22 years, received her into the Catholic Church, kept regular contact, spoke with her the day she died, and conducted her funeral."

Abby Johnson, who worked for Planned Parenthood before joining the anti-abortion movement, said that McCorvey telephoned her days before her death to express remorse for abortion. Johnson said she believed McCorvey was a damaged woman who should not have been thrust into the spotlight so quickly after turning against abortion: "I don't have any problem believing that in the last year of her life that she tried to convince herself abortion was OK. But I know at the end of her life, she did not believe that."

Books

References

  • Norma McCorvey speaking at the 1998 March for Life (C-SPAN)