Norma McCorvey
Encyclopedia
Norma Leah McCorvey better known by the legal pseudonym "Jane Roe
", was the plaintiff
in the landmark American
lawsuit Roe v. Wade
in 1973. The U.S. Supreme Court
overturned individual states' laws against abortion
by ruling them unconstitutional. Later, McCorvey's opinion on abortion drastically changed, and she is now active in Pro-Life causes.
, Louisiana
, and raised in Houston, Texas
as a Jehovah's Witness. McCorvey's father left the family before she was old enough to remember; her parents subsequently divorced and she was raised by her mother Mildred, a violent alcoholic. McCorvey's father died on September 27, 1995. She is of partial Cajun
and Cherokee
ancestry. She dropped out of high school at the age of 14. Two years later, she married Woody McCorvey, but claimed he was abusive
towards her. Subsequently, McCorvey left him during the pregnancy with her first child, Melissa (born 1965). The following year, McCorvey again became pregnant, eventually giving birth to a baby that was placed for adoption. She then returned to live with her mother, but when Norma intimated that she was sexually attracted to women
, her mother disowned her and took custody of Norma's daughter, Melissa.
d, as she would then be eligible to obtain a legal abortion (with the understanding that Texas's pro-life laws allowed abortion in the cases of rape and incest
). Due to lack of police evidence or documentation, the scheme was not successful and McCorvey would later admit the situation was a fabrication. She attempted to obtain an illegal abortion, but the respective clinics had been closed down by authorities.
Eventually, McCorvey was referred to attorneys Linda Coffee
and Sarah Weddington
. The case took three years of trials to reach the United States Supreme Court. In the meantime, McCorvey had given birth to the baby in question, who was eventually adopted.
McCorvey revealed herself to the press as being "Jane Roe" of the decision within days of its issuance and stated that she sought an abortion because she was unemployable and greatly depressed. In the 1980s, McCorvey asserted that she had been the "pawn" of two young and ambitious lawyers (Weddington and Coffee) who were looking for a plaintiff
with whom they could challenge the Texas
state law prohibiting abortion.
, I Am Roe, McCorvey wrote of her sexuality. For many years, she had lived quietly in Dallas with her long-time partner, Connie Gonzales. "We're not like other lesbians, going to bars," she explained in a New York Times interview. "We're lesbians together. We're homers." That same year, she converted to Christianity
and expressed remorse for her part in the Supreme Court decision. McCorvey has worked as part of the pro-life
movement, such as Operation Rescue
.
At a signing of I Am Roe, McCorvey was befriended by evangelical minister Flip Benham
. She 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 become an advocate of Operation Rescue
's campaign to make abortion illegal.
McCorvey's second book, Won by Love, was published in 1998. She explained her change on the stance of abortion with the following comments:
Shortly thereafter, McCorvey released a statement that affirmed her entrance into the Roman Catholic Church, and she has been confirmed into the church as a full member.
McCorvey has also stated that she is no longer a lesbian
. On August 17, 1998, she was received into the Catholic Church by Father Frank Pavone
, the International Director of Priests for Life
and Father Edward Robinson in Dallas.
arguing that the case should be heard once again in light of evidence that the procedure harms women but the petition was denied.
On January 22, 2008, McCorvey endorsed Republican
presidential candidate Ron Paul
. McCorvey stated, "I support Ron Paul for president because we share the same goal, that of overturning Roe v. Wade. He has never wavered on the issue of being pro-life
and has a voting record to prove it. He understands the importance of civil liberties
for all, including the unborn."
McCorvey is still active in pro-life demonstrations including one she participated in before President Barack Obama
's commencement address to the graduates of the Catholic University of Notre Dame
. The decision to have Obama speak at the university on May 17, 2009, was met with controversy because of the conflict between his views on abortion and those of the Catholic Church. She was arrested on the first day of US Senate hearings for the confirmation
to the Supreme Court of the United States
of Sonia Sotomayor
after she and another protester started yelling during the opening statement of Senator Al Franken
(D-Minn.
).
McCorvey made her acting debut in the movie Doonby
shot on location in 2010 in the small central Texas
town of Smithville
. Starring John Schneider
, Jenn Gotzon
, and Robert Davi
, the film previewed at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
and is slated for release in the fall of 2011.
John Doe
The name "John Doe" is used as a placeholder name in a legal action, case or discussion for a male party, whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown...
", was the plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
in the landmark American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawsuit Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
in 1973. The U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
overturned individual states' laws against abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
by ruling them unconstitutional. Later, McCorvey's opinion on abortion drastically changed, and she is now active in Pro-Life causes.
Personal life
McCorvey was born in SimmesportSimmesport, Louisiana
Simmesport is a town in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,239 at the 2000 census.During the American Civil War, Union General Nathaniel P. Banks was superseded in command by E.R.S. Canby. General Ulysses S. Grant had sought Banks' removal for months, but U.S....
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, and raised in Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
as a Jehovah's Witness. McCorvey's father left the family before she was old enough to remember; her parents subsequently divorced and she was raised by her mother Mildred, a violent alcoholic. McCorvey's father died on September 27, 1995. She is of partial Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
and Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
ancestry. She dropped out of high school at the age of 14. Two years later, she married Woody McCorvey, but claimed he was abusive
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
towards her. Subsequently, McCorvey left him during the pregnancy with her first child, Melissa (born 1965). The following year, McCorvey again became pregnant, eventually giving birth to a baby that was placed for adoption. She then returned to live with her mother, but when Norma intimated that she was sexually attracted to women
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, her mother disowned her and took custody of Norma's daughter, Melissa.
Roe v. Wade
In 1969, at the age of 21, while working low-paying jobs and living with her father, McCorvey became pregnant a third time. She returned to Dallas, where friends advised her to assert falsely that she had been rapeRape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
d, as she would then be eligible to obtain a legal abortion (with the understanding that Texas's pro-life laws allowed abortion in the cases of rape and incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
). Due to lack of police evidence or documentation, the scheme was not successful and McCorvey would later admit the situation was a fabrication. She attempted to obtain an illegal abortion, but the respective clinics had been closed down by authorities.
Eventually, McCorvey was referred to attorneys Linda Coffee
Linda Coffee
Linda Nellene Coffee is an attorney living in Dallas, Texas. Coffee is best known for representing Norma McCorvey , a pregnant woman who desired an abortion, in the precedent-setting United States Supreme Court case Roe v...
and Sarah Weddington
Sarah Weddington
Sarah Ragle Weddington is an American attorney and lecturer from Texas who gained worldwide fame when she and Linda Coffee represented "Jane Roe" in the landmark Roe v. Wade case in the United States Supreme Court.-Family and education:She is the daughter of Lena Catherine and Rev...
. The case took three years of trials to reach the United States Supreme Court. In the meantime, McCorvey had given birth to the baby in question, who was eventually adopted.
McCorvey revealed herself to the press as being "Jane Roe" of the decision within days of its issuance and stated that she sought an abortion because she was unemployable and greatly depressed. In the 1980s, McCorvey asserted that she had been the "pawn" of two young and ambitious lawyers (Weddington and Coffee) who were looking for a plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
with whom they could challenge the Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
state law prohibiting abortion.
Books and conversion
In her first book, the 1994 autobiographyAutobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, I Am Roe, McCorvey wrote of her sexuality. For many years, she had lived quietly in Dallas with her long-time partner, Connie Gonzales. "We're not like other lesbians, going to bars," she explained in a New York Times interview. "We're lesbians together. We're homers." That same year, she converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and expressed remorse for her part in the Supreme Court decision. McCorvey has worked as part of the pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
movement, such as Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is a pro-life organization which originated in California and is now based in Kansas....
.
At a signing of I Am Roe, McCorvey was befriended by evangelical minister Flip Benham
Flip Benham
Philip "Flip" Benham is an evangelical Christian minister and the national leader of Concord, North Carolina-based Operation Save America.-Pro-life ministry:...
. She was baptized on August 8, 1995, by Benham in a Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, backyard swimming pool, an event that was filmed for national television. Two days later she announced that she had become an advocate of Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is a pro-life organization which originated in California and is now based in Kansas....
's campaign to make abortion illegal.
McCorvey's second book, Won by Love, was published in 1998. She explained her change on the stance of abortion with the following comments:
Shortly thereafter, McCorvey released a statement that affirmed her entrance into the Roman Catholic Church, and she has been confirmed into the church as a full member.
McCorvey has also stated that she is no longer a lesbian
Ex-gay
The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that seek to get people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires, to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship...
. On August 17, 1998, she was received into the Catholic Church by Father Frank Pavone
Frank Pavone
Father Frank A. Pavone is an American Roman Catholic priest and pro-life activist. He was the national director of Priests for Life and serves as the Chairman and Pastoral Director of Rachel's Vineyard...
, the International Director of Priests for Life
Priests for Life
Priests for Life is a Roman Catholic pro-life organization based in New York. It functions as a network to promote and coordinate pro-life activism with the primary strategic goal of ending abortion and euthanasia and to spread the Gospel of Life according to the encyclical of the same name...
and Father Edward Robinson in Dallas.
Later life
In February 2005, McCorvey petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 decision with McCorvey v. HillMcCorvey v. Hill
McCorvey v. Hill, 385 F.3d 846 , was a case in which the principal original litigant in Roe v. Wade, Norma McCorvey, also known as 'Jane Roe', requested the overturning of Roe. The U.S...
arguing that the case should be heard once again in light of evidence that the procedure harms women but the petition was denied.
On January 22, 2008, McCorvey endorsed Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
presidential candidate Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
. McCorvey stated, "I support Ron Paul for president because we share the same goal, that of overturning Roe v. Wade. He has never wavered on the issue of being pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
and has a voting record to prove it. He understands the importance of civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
for all, including the unborn."
McCorvey is still active in pro-life demonstrations including one she participated in before President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's commencement address to the graduates of the Catholic University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
. The decision to have Obama speak at the university on May 17, 2009, was met with controversy because of the conflict between his views on abortion and those of the Catholic Church. She was arrested on the first day of US Senate hearings for the confirmation
Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination
On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Sotomayor's nomination was formally submitted to the United States Senate on June 1, 2009, when the...
to the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
of Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. Sotomayor is the Court's 111th justice, its first Hispanic justice, and its third female justice....
after she and another protester started yelling during the opening statement of Senator Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
(D-Minn.
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
).
McCorvey made her acting debut in the movie Doonby
Doonby
Doonby is an upcoming film written and directed by Peter Mackenzie and produced by Michael Mackenzie, Mark Joseph and Tommy Warren. It stars John Schneider, Jenn Gotzon, Ernie Hudson, Jennifer O'Neill, Will Wallace, Robert Davi, and Joe Estevez...
shot on location in 2010 in the small central Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
town of Smithville
Smithville, Texas
Smithville is a city in Bastrop County, Texas, United States, near the Colorado River. The population was 3,901 at the 2000 census. The population grew to an estimated 4,339 for 2004.-History:...
. Starring John Schneider
John Schneider (television actor)
John Richard Schneider III is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of Bo Duke in the 1980s American television series The Dukes of Hazzard, and as Jonathan Kent on Smallville, a 2001 television adaptation of Superman.Alongside his acting career, Schneider performed as a...
, Jenn Gotzon
Jenn Gotzon
Jenn Gotzon is an American film actress who had her career break portraying President Richard M. Nixon daughter Tricia Nixon in Ron Howard's 2009 Academy Award-Nominated film Frost/Nixon opposite Frank Langella...
, and Robert Davi
Robert Davi
Robert John Davi is an American actor and singer. He has played such roles as Vietnam veteran and Special Agent Johnson in Die Hard, the villainous Jake Fratelli in The Goonies, and Al Torres in Showgirls...
, the film previewed at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...
and is slated for release in the fall of 2011.
Books
- I Am Roe (1994) ISBN 0-06-017010-7 ISBN 0-06-092638-4
- Won by Love (1998) ISBN 0-7852-7237-2 ISBN 0-7567-7332-6