A lesbian pioneer of American abortion rights has died aged 69
Norma McCorvey, the anonymous plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that led to legalized abortion in the United States, died Saturday at an assisted-living facility in Katy, Texas.
“Ultimately, Norma’s story after Roe was not one of bitterness but of forgiveness”. She was surrounded by her family when she passed away. Her father was a television repairman, her mother an alcoholic.
According to the Washington Post, McCorvey was 22-years-old when she became pregnant for the third time in 1969.
The Roe v Wade decision was handed down on January 22, 1973 with seven justices backing it and two dissenting. Little did she know how famous, or infamous, Jane Roe would one day become. There is no meaningful middle ground. It is, after all, such a deeply personal and life-altering issue. In 1997, she wrote a friend-of-the-court brief in a long-shot case claiming Roe had led to untold numbers of coerced abortions, and must be overturned.
Her case was supposedly a rape pregnancy, but she later revealed she had lied about the situation. McCorvey wrote an autobiography about her experience as an abortion rights advocate and approved a later biography once she had reversed her position. “It’s as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth – that’s a baby!”
Efforts to overturn the decision are heating up with the election of Republican Donald Trump as president and a conservative US Congress. Mr Trump has said abortion should be largely banned and has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood, a healthcare provider that draws the ire of many Republicans because it provides abortions, in addition to other services. But, from what I understand about God’s grace, I wouldn’t be surprised if the One who washed her sins “as white as snow” brought with him to Heaven’s gates, the vast sea of 55 million precious kids, the victims of abortion, to welcome a tired Norma home. I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name.
Eventually both sides of the debate soured on McCorvey, with Benham telling journalists he believed McCorvey came over to the anti-abortion movement out of a desire to make money.
Over the years, McCorvey would become more controversial. She was 69 years old.
She left him while pregnant with their daughter, Melissa, who was raised by McCorvey’s mother. “A movement against access to abortion for women grew up, flourished, around a single target”, Ginsburg said.
I met Norma in 1995, after she had already been baptized a Christian by Rev.
As her biographer Joshua Prager noted in a 2013 article, she was more comfortable with foes than allies, firing and rehiring her lawyer multiple times even though he worked for her pro bono. After her conversion, she was an evangelical, but she later become Roman Catholic. But when it came to my turn, well, Sarah saw these cuts on my wrists, my swollen eyes from crying, the miserable person sitting across from her, and she knew she had a patsy. Abortion is murder. For over twenty years, and against my will, my name has been synonymous with abortion. When do babies in the womb feel pain?
Let’s learn this lesson in empathy.