7 powerful quotes from ‘Jane Roe’ of Roe v. Wade

Norma McCorvey, also known as “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, was the plaintiff that attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, used in the Texas court case that struck down all laws against abortion throughout the United States. Today, McCorvey is pro-life.

1) “The entire basis for Roe v. Wade was built upon false assumptions.” 

In an affidavit McCorvey submitted to the District Court of New Jersey in 2000, she says:

2) “I didn’t know during the Roe v. Wade case that the life of a human being was terminated.”

McCorvey became pregnant during a low point in her life. She was homeless and living in a public park, and her other two children were being raised by others. A lawyer she was speaking to about adoption referred her to Weddington and Coffee.

The lawyers allegedly fawned over McCorvey, taking her out to eat and giving her lots of attention. They complained about being unable to find the perfect plaintiff for their case to make abortion legal. They told McCorvey that she was the ideal case. According to McCorvey:

3) “The courts…I feel used me to justify legalization of terminating of the lives of over 35 million babies.”

McCorvey trusted her lawyers, and signed the affidavit of Roe v. Wade without reading it. Knowing little about abortion procedures, McCorvey believed Weddington when she told her that abortion was removing “a bit of tissue.” McCorvey explains why she later felt exploited:

Weddington and Coffee did nothing to improve McCorvey’s situation. They knew she was on the street addicted to drugs, but never helped her or directed her to help. They merely used her, and then decided that her story was not compelling enough.

Weddington and Coffee made up the fiction that McCorvey had conceived out of gang rape. This was a lie, but was it passed on to the court and the media as though it were true. McCorvey would later say:

4) “There were dead babies and baby parts stacked like cord wood.”

After the Roe decision, McCovery became a pro-choice icon. But at a pro-choice march, McCorvey had an encounter that left her confused and troubled. A young woman came up to her and said:

Despite this uncomfortable experience, McCorvey went on to work in the abortion industry.

She says: 

5) “No one even explained to the mother that the child already existed and the life of a human was being terminated.”

Working in filthy abortion facility conditions wore her down, but McCorvey still supported abortion. She describes abortion “counseling” at the facilities: 

6) “Clinic workers suffer, the women suffer, and the babies die.”

McCorvey recalls another incident that troubled her. A woman was getting a second trimester abortion at her clinic, and saw the hand of her preborn child.

McCorvey says the deception at her abortion facility was bent on dehumanizing the preborn child:

7) “I long for the day that justice will be done and the burden from all of these deaths will be removed from my shoulders.”

Norma (Jane Roe) from VirtueMedia on Vimeo.

Roe’s pro-life conversion came about when pro-lifers moved into a building across the street and began to reach out to her and the other clinic workers (you can read details about how her conversion came about in her book Won by Love). Now firmly in the pro-life movement, she wants to undo the harm her case caused:

1. Norma McCorvey Won by Love (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997) 15 – 16

2. Norma McCorvey 60 – 61

3. Activism: Norma McCorvey,”American Feminist, Summer 2003, 22-23