Roe v. Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey dies

Norma McCorvey, the lead plaintiff in the 1973 case that legalized abortion in the United States, died today at an assisted-living facility in Katy, Texas. She was 69. According to a writer working on a book about her life, McCorvey suffered from a heart condition. McCorvey, better known by the pseudonym “Jane Roe,” became the poster child for the pro-abortion movement when she challenged the Texas law that prevented her from killing her third child. McCorvey later said she felt used by her attorneys, who needed her to press their case but had little interest in helping improve her life. McCorvey gave her baby up for adoption and had only sporadic communication with her attorneys after that. She later said she only learned of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade from the media. By then her baby was 2½ years old. McCorvey spent 35 years in a lesbian relationship but in 1995 she accepted Christ and was baptized by the head of pro-life group Operation Rescue. She became a frequent participant in pro-life protests, including one that disrupted confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 2009. In 2003, McCorvey petitioned the Supreme Court to reconsider her famous case. The justices declined.