Jane Roe: Plaintiff in the “Roe V. Wade” Supreme Court Case (2024)

1947-2017

Jane Roe was the pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff behind the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which determined that the right to an abortion was protected by the U.S. Constitution. McCorvey, who worked for abortion clinics following the 1973 ruling, later became an outspoken activist against abortion and tried to have Roe v. Wade overturned but was unsuccessful in her lifetime. Prior to her death in 2017, McCorvey delivered what she called a “deathbed confession” in which she never believed in the anti-abortion movement and only participated in it for financial gain.

FULL NAME: Norma Lea Nelson McCorvey
BORN: September 22, 1947
DIED: February 18, 2017
BIRTHPLACE: Simmesport, Louisana
SPOUSE: Woody McCorvey
CHILDREN: Melissa, Jennifer, and Shelley
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Virgo

Norma Lea Nelson was born on September 22, 1947, in Simmesport, Louisiana. Her father, a television repairman named Olin Nelson, abandoned the family when Norma was young, and her alcoholic mother, Mary Gautreaux, moved the family to Houston. Norma got into trouble for stealing at a young age and was made a ward of the court, spending time in a state institution, which she called the happiest times of her life, according to The Guardian.

In the early 1960s, Norma married Woody McCorvey when she was 16. They had a daughter together named Melissa, but Norma divorced Woody after he allegedly became physically abusive toward her. Norma signed custody of Melissa over to her mother, who then kicked Norma out of the house. McCorvey claimed her mother tricked her into signing the adoption papers, telling her they were insurance papers, but her mother said McCorvey willingly agreed to the adoption.

McCorvey had another baby named Jennifer in 1967, who she gave up for adoption. Two years later, she became pregnant again; the father has never been publicly identified, except by the first name Bill. McCorvey attempted to get an abortion in Dallas, but when Texas law prohibited it, she was connected with lawyers Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, who were looking for a pregnant woman seeking an abortion so they could bring a case to trial and challenge the law. McCorvey agreed to be a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which led to the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.

McCorvey wished to remain anonymous, so she was given the pseudonym “Jane Roe,” which is used when the plaintiff wishes to remain anonymous. It took three years of trials before the Supreme Court verdict was reached, and so McCorvey was not able to receive an abortion and gave birth to the child, who was put up for adoption. At one point, McCorvey had claimed the child was the result of a rape, hoping that would improve her chances of getting an abortion, though she later admitted that was a lie. Later in life, McCorvey would reconnect with the child at the center of the case.

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in McCorvey’s favor on Roe v. Wade, determining that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s right to have an abortion prior to fetal viability.

Although anonymous during the case, McCorvey publicly identified herself as Jane Roe shortly after the verdict was reached. During the 1980s and early ’90s, she worked in abortion clinics and largely stayed out of the spotlight. But that all changed with the publication of her 1994 autobiography, I Am Roe. During a book signing event that same year, she was screamed at by evangelical minister and anti-abortion activist Flip Benham, who said she was “responsible for the death of 33 million children.” Despite this encounter, however, McCorvey and Benham became friends, and the next year, she converted to Evangelical Protestantism during a baptism Behnam performed in a Dallas backyard swimming pool, which was broadcast on national television.

McCorvey quit her abortion clinic job and became an advocate for Benham’s organization Operation Rescue, which sought to make abortion illegal. She expressed regret for her role in the Roe v. Wade case and said she believed she had been used and manipulated by pro-abortion activists. “I’m pro-life. I think I have always been pro-life, I just didn't know it,” she announced, according to The New York Times, adding that she considers any abortions after the first trimester to be “killing.” Benham claimed McCorvey had “been saved out of the abortion industry” and that she “feels very badly about what she helped usher into this nation.”

McCorvey began identifying as a lesbian shortly after her marriage to Woody ended. She met Connie Gonzalez shortly after the birth of McCorvey’s third daughter, while Roe v. Wade was still before the courts. McCorvey and Gonzalez began a romantic relationship that lasted for 35 years, though McCorvey started calling their relationship “platonic” after her conversion to Evangelical Protestantism. (They continued living together until their relationship ended in 2006.)

McCorvey converted to Catholicism in 1998, the same year she published her second book, Won by Love. She continued to protest against abortion and, in 2004, sought to have Roe v. Wade overturned, claiming it should be reconsidered in light of new information about the long-term emotional harm abortion inflicts upon women. The case was dismissed by a federal appeals court.

McCorvey participated in several high-profile protests against abortion in later years and was arrested during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 after causing a disruption during Senator Al Franken’s remarks.

McCorvey died of heart failure in an assisted-living home in Katy, Texas, on February 18, 2017, at the age of 69.

Three years after her death, a documentary called AKA Jane Roe (2020) was broadcast on FX, which included an explosive interview with McCorvey that she called her “deathbed confession.” McCorvey claimed she never truly believed in the anti-abortion movement and only participated in it because it benefited her financially. “I took their money, and they put me out in front of the camera and told me what to say, and that’s what I’d say,” she said in the interview. When asked if it was all an act, McCorvey replied, “Yeah. I was good at it, too.”

The identity of Shelley Lynn Thornton, Norma’s third child who was at the center of the Roe v. Wade decision, wasn’t publicly known until 2021. Thornton didn’t even know her mother’s identity until 1989, when reporters from the National Enquirer revealed it to her. Thornton never met McCorvey in person, but they spoke via phone, after which Thornton felt McCorvey only wanted to connect with her “to use me for publicity.” In 2021, Thornton said she keeps her personal views about abortion “close to my chest” and resisted efforts from both sides to use her for political purposes.

In 2022, five years after McCorvey’s death, Roe v. Wade was reversed by the Supreme Court with the 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Thornton spoke out against the ruling, saying the decision to have an abortion should be a private, medical choice decided by a woman, her family, and her doctor. “Too many times has a woman’s choice, voice, and individual freedom been decided for her by others,” she said.

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