Tulsa World: Key figure in landmark abortion case speaks in Tulsa

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Key figure in landmark abortion case speaks in Tulsa

Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, speaks at a pro-life rally on Saturday in Tulsa. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World

By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
Published: 10/10/2009 7:52 PM
Last Modified: 10/10/2009 7:52 PM

The plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion spoke Saturday in Tulsa.

Norma McCorvey, better known as Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, is a small woman, with short-cropped red hair barely showing under a baseball cap, and a cigarette often dangling between her fingers.

She told her story Saturday morning at a pro-life rally at the Garden of Hope, a park owned by the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa across the street from Tulsa’s only abortion clinic, Reproductive Services, 6136 E. 32nd Place.

The rally marked the midpoint of “40 Days for Life,” an initiative with round-the-clock prayer being held at 140 sites across the nation.

In an interview with the Tulsa World before she spoke publicly, McCorvey said that in the summer of 1969, unmarried and pregnant with her third child, she was approached by attorneys asking her to be the plaintiff in a case to challenge Texas laws banning abortion.

“I didn’t even know what a plaintiff was,” she said. “I was just a hippie.” In discussions over two pitchers of beer, she and the attorneys chose the pseudo name Jane Roe, because Jane was her childhood imaginary friend.

She downplayed her part in the historic case.

“All I did was sign an affidavit,” she said. Four years later, in 1973, the Supreme Court legalized abortion across the land.

“I’ve never even had an abortion,” said the 62-year-old mother of three daughters and several grandchildren.

After abortion was legalized, McCorvey worked for years at an abortion clinic in Dallas, and marched in pro-choice rallies.

Working late one night in 1995, she said, she had an experience that changed her from an abortion provider to a pro-life advocate.

“I heard a scream in the back of the clinic, and went back there,” she said.

“A woman who was having a procedure had coughed, simply coughed, and her children came out. She had twins. That was my realization that these were children.

“I left that night and got drunk because it was such a horrible awakening.”

McCorvey said she developed a friendship with pro-life people protesting outside the clinic, and eventually was baptized as a Christian.

“Jane Roe died in 1995, in order for me to live,” she said.

Since then, she has converted to Catholicism and become active in the pro-life movement. She worked for five years with a group that collected stories of women who have had abortions, and presented them to the Supreme Court.

She wrote a book, “Won by Love,” and is launching a ministry by that name this fall that will enlist mothers to pray and fast for an end to abortion.

She has received threats as recently as two weeks ago, and travels with a bodyguard. She lives “on a mountain” in a location few people know, and has watchdogs and people around her all the time.

Several Tulsa police officers watched over the rally here. The Reproductive Services clinic was not open Saturday morning, and no counter-protesters were at the rally.

McCorvey said she was optimistic about the progress of the pro-life movement.

“We’re seeing a lot of new (pro life) groups, and a lot of young people coming out,” she said. “We’re winning.” By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer

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Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Woman known as Jane Roe speaks out," which was published on 10/11/2009. So far, 74 comments have been made.