Norma McCorvey, the ‘Jane Roe’ plaintiff in the historic Roe vs. Wade case has died at the age of 69 in Katy, TX after suffering from a heart ailment. She is regarded as a pioneer for the pro-choice movement and helped change abortion rights in the U.S. following the 1973 Supreme Court case which legalized abortion.
McCorvey was a 21-year-old who struggled with substance abuse, physical abuse as well as her sexual identity. The woman had previously given birth to two children, who were adopted, but when she became pregnant for the third time she wanted to end the pregnancy. However, laws in Texas were very strict against abortion, so McCorvey took legal action and her attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Via NY Daily News:
“The Supreme Court handed down a watershed 7-to-2 ruling that declared individual state laws banning abortion unconstitutional and set the stage for decades of contentious public debate over the decision.
McCorvey published a 1994 tell-all book titled “I am Roe” that detailed her role in the struggle for reproductive rights as well as her relationships with women. A year later, McCorvey’s views on abortion changed and she became a born-again Christian. She pledged her life to overturning the decision that will forever be linked to her fictitious name.
“I think it’s safe to say that the entire abortion industry is based on a lie … I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name,” McCorvey said in a pro-life advertisement from 2013.“
To this day, the pro-choice vs. pro-life argument remains a topic of debate.
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photo: Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images
Source: https://www.google.com/amp/
