Norma McCorvey, who went by the name of “Jane Roe” in the infamous Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, has died at the age of 69.
After winning the Supreme Court case, McCorvey became active in the pro-abortion movement. But the kindness of a pro-life demonstrator at an abortion clinic led to her conversion to Christianity.
She then became a pro-life activist, battling the abortions that in another life she made legal.
The Associated Press obituary, excerpted and linked after the jump, has some fascinating details about her life, such as these: During the Roe v. Wade case, she claimed that she needed an abortion because she was pregnant due to rape, but she later admitted this was a lie. She was basically used by feminist activists who ran with her case and took it to the Supreme Court. She became involved in a lesbian relationship, but after she became a Christian, they became celibate. After her conversion, she was an evangelical, but she later become Roman Catholic.
Her life is a remarkable testimony to the grace of God, who redeems sinners and changes them.
From Norma McCorvey, who was at center of Roe v. Wade, dead at 69, AP:
Norma McCorvey, whose legal challenge under the pseudonym “Jane Roe” led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision that legalized abortion but who later became an outspoken opponent of the procedure, died Saturday. She was 69.
McCorvey died at an assisted living center in Katy, Texas, said journalist Joshua Prager, who is working on a book about McCorvey and was with her and her family when she died. He said she died of heart failure and had been ill for some time.
McCorvey was 22, unmarried, unemployed and pregnant for the third time in 1969 when she sought to have an abortion in Texas, where the procedure was illegal except to save a woman’s life. The subsequent lawsuit, known as Roe v. Wade, led to the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that established abortion rights, though by that time, McCorvey had given birth and given her daughter up for adoption.
Decades later, McCorvey underwent a conversion, becoming an evangelical Christian and joining the anti-abortion movement. A short time later, she underwent another religious conversion and became a Roman Catholic.
“I don’t believe in abortion even in an extreme situation. If the woman is impregnated by a rapist, it’s still a child. You’re not to act as your own God,” she told The Associated Press in 1998.
[Keep reading. . .]
Photo of Norma McCorvey, 1989, by Lorie Shaull [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Norma McCorvey, who went by the name of “Jane Roe” in the infamous Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, has died at the age of 69.
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