The story of how ‘Jane Roe’ of <em>Roe v. Wade</em> became pro-life

The plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, which struck down pro-life laws and made abortion legal in every state, was Norma McCorvey. Though initially the icon for abortion advocates, she became pro-life in 1995. McCorvey remained active in the pro-life movement until her death on February 8, 2017.

In the early 1970s, McCorvey was pregnant and trying to find an illegal abortionist. Unable to do so, she went to a lawyer to arrange an adoption for her baby. The lawyer, however, was an acquaintance of attorney and pro-abortion activist Sarah Weddington. This acquaintance knew Weddington was looking for a plaintiff to challenge pro-life laws before the Supreme Court and referred McCorvey to her. When McCorvey met Weddington in 1971, abortion was legal in only a few states. Weddington wanted to change that, and she used McCorvey to make Roe v. Wade a reality.

Duped by the Abortion Industry

Sarah Weddington and fellow lawyer Linda Coffee met with McCorvey in a pizza parlor in Texas. McCorvey thought Weddington was going to help her get an illegal abortion. Instead, she talked McCorvey into signing an affidavit under the pseudonym “Jane Roe.” This would be the basis of Roe v. Wade. McCorvey would later say the attorneys “were looking for somebody, anybody, to use to further their own agenda. I was their most willing dupe.”(1)

McCorvey claimed that she had been raped. This claim garnered public sympathy, especially as her lawyers pushed the narrative, but McCorvey admitted years later that it was a lie.

McCorvey had never wanted to be the plaintiff in Roe; she simply wanted Weddington to help her get an illegal abortion. And Weddington did know where Norma could get such an abortion, because Weddington herself had her own illegal abortion a few years prior. But Weddington needed McCorvey to stay pregnant for Roe v. Wade.

McCorvey would later say:

Even some pro-choice activists have acknowledged that McCorvey was taken advantage of by Weddington and Coffee. In 1995, pro-choice writer Debbie Nathan called McCorvey “Choice’s sacrificial lamb – a necessary one, perhaps, but a sacrifice even so.” (3)

McCorvey was, thankfully, spared the trauma of abortion. Her baby, a daughter, was born while the case was still being argued. McCorvey placed her child for adoption.

Baby Development Week by Week

Dumped by the Abortion Industry

After the initial meeting with Weddington and Coffee, the lawyers had no more use for McCorvey. She learned about the Roe v. Wade decision through a newspaper. Upon learning that she was responsible for overturning abortion laws, McCorvey was overwhelmed by guilt. In 2003, years after her pro-life conversion, she describes attempting suicide alone in her home after learning the news:

McCorvey got a razor and started cutting her wrists.

McCorvey would later come to realize that her own death would just be one more tragedy to add onto the children’s deaths. Years later, she would understand that death was not the real answer to anything.

Joining the Abortion Industry 

Before she realized what death and abortion really did to women and children, McCorvey pushed herself to get involved in the pro-abortion movement. But even here, there were times when her role in legalizing abortion bothered her. In one instance, she was at a march when she got into a conversation with another marcher, a young woman. The woman said to her:

Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, speaks at a Dallas March for Life (Photo credit: The Catholic Pro-Life Committee)

McCorvey also worked in several abortion facilities. Soon after she began working in the abortion industry, she started drinking heavily. Some of what she saw in abortion facilities horrified her. She describes one of facilities:

Questioning the Abortion Industry

McCorvey was also troubled by the way abortion workers tried to hide the truth from women — similar to how the whole truth was hid from her during Roe v. Wade. She wrote about one time she got in trouble for telling the truth about abortion to a patient. The woman hesitated to sign the consent form. McCorvey recalls:

2nd Trimester Surgical Abortion: Dilation and Evacuation (D & E)

There were other times when McCorvey refused to co-operate:

McCorvey was also asked to do medical tasks that she was not trained for:

The doctor was determined to make as much money as he could:

While these things were going on, a pro-life organization purchased the building next door to the abortion facility. McCorvey and the other workers were very upset to find out that the pro-lifers would be their new neighbors.

Leaving the Abortion Industry

At first McCorvey fought with the pro-lifers, but some of them reached out to her with compassion. She became friends with one pro-life woman and her seven-year-old daughter, Emily. Emily’s kindness towards Norma and her innocence softened the abortion worker’s heart.

Then she found out that Emily had almost been aborted. Her mother had considered abortion when pregnant with the little girl. This had a profound effect on Norma. She says, “Abortion was no longer an ‘abstract right.’ It had a face now, in a little girl named Emily.” (11)

Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade

Shortly afterwards, McCorvey accepted the offer of Emily and her mother to go to their church. She had a religious conversion, and finally accepted the truth that, on some level, she already knew: abortion hurts women and kills babies.

READ: 15 women on why they regret their abortions: ‘Nothing has ever hurt me this bad’

McCorvey quit her job at the facility. She later said of her job:

Live Action News previously published an article on the macabre jokes abortion workers made to help themselves cope with the grisliness of their job.

Until her death, McCorvey spoke out against abortion and the damage of Roe v. Wade. In a 2003 Chicago Tribune article, she said:

1. Norma McCorvey’s testimony before Congress in 1998 before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism, and Property Rights of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 105thCongress, 2nd Session (January 21, 1998).

2. Norma McCorvey, A.k.a. Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade Affidavit, March 15, 2000

3. Texas Observer, September 25, 1995

4. Tom Nevin “Roe V Wade: 30 Years of Lies” Focus on the Family, January 1, 2003

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

6. Norma McCorvey and Gary Thomas Won by Love, 6-7

7. Norma McCorvey and Gary Thomas Won by Love, 43

8. Won By Love 61-62

9. Won by Love, 56

10. Won by Love, 58-59

11. Won by Love, 155-156

12. Won by Love, 62-63

13. Barbara Brotman “Three Decades of Roe vs. Wade” Chicago Tribune, January 22, 2003