A lifetime ago, she was a 21-year-old Texan who wanted to get an abortion in a state that outlawed the procedure. In 1973, she was Jane Roe, the victorious plaintiff in Roe vs. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in the United States. Until 1995, she was a strong abortion rights supporter.
These days she’s known as Norma McCorvey, an outspoken Catholic and anti-abortion crusader. Her life story reads like a movie plot, full of unexpected twists and turns, leading to a destination no one could have imagined.
McCorvey, 52, shared her story, which she calls “Won by Love,” with nearly 400 attendees Saturday at a conference sponsored by Oregon Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion political organization.
When the short, red-haired woman appeared before the audience at Valley River Inn’s conference center, audience members spontaneously rose to their feet.
One attendee didn’t jump to his feet, but it wasn’t because he disliked McCorvey’s stance on abortion. John Dreiling, 25, a student at Lane Community College, was born with spinal bifida, which requires him to use a wheelchair. Describing himself as a disabled Oregonian, he praised McCorvey for her change of heart.
“She’s realized that abortion is the taking of a human life,” he said. “Abortion goes to the heart of a person with a disability. My life was certainly at risk, and if my parents hadn’t been opposed to abortion, it would have been completely legal to abort me.”
McCorvey made her stance on abortion crystal clear.
“I’m happy to report that I have become 100 percent pro-life without exception, without compromise and without apology,” she said.
Born in Louisiana in 1947 as Norma Leah Nelson, McCorvey was married at age 16, was divorced shortly thereafter and was a mother twice before she became pregnant in 1969 with her third child — the famous “Roe” baby.
After seeking to obtain a secret abortion she met Sarah Weddington, the young lawyer who filed a class-action suit, and took her case all the way to the Supreme Court. McCorvey, meanwhile, gave birth to a baby girl, whom she gave up for adoption. She chose to remain anonymous and drifted out of the public eye.
In 1984, McCorvey said she received a letter from Weddington, asking her to lend support to the abortion rights cause. Thus, Jane Roe went public. She granted interviews, gave speeches and published her autobiography. There were articles, television shows and even a movie that won two Emmy awards.
In the mid-1990s, she was busy working at an abortion clinic in Dallas. But the abortion clinic would be getting new neighbors — and not just any neighbors. A local chapter of Operation Rescue, the controversial anti-abortion organization that advocates 1960s-style civil disobedience, moved in next-door.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, there is going to be bloodshed,’” McCorvey said. “I didn’t know whether to call the press or the police, so I called both.”
Although she didn’t elaborate at the conference on the clashes between protesters and clinic employees, she said that chief among her adversaries in those days was Philip “Flip” Benham, Operation Rescue’s local leader in Dallas.
McCorvey said the pair’s shouting matches melted into conversations when Benham approached her to apologize for a hurtful statement he had directed toward her.
“I was very moved for some reason [and] I couldn’t figure out why,” she said. She began talking to the protesters between her duties at the clinic.
“They were always smiling, and they were always happy,” she said. “I thought it was disgusting. But I thought, ‘I’m not happy. What do they have that makes them happy?’”
Soon after, she accepted an invitation to attend a local evangelical church. There she became a born-again Christian. Images of her baptism were displayed across the nation in August of 1995.
She quit her job at the clinic and began answering telephones for Operation Rescue. In 1997, she formed her own organization called Roe No More, and she currently travels the country speaking at anti-abortion events. In 1998, she was confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church.
“I did drugs. I did a lot of things, but when I was baptized, all that was washed away as far as the east is from the west,” she said. “I’m a Jesus freak. It’s the best thing in the world that could happen to a young woman is to love God and to love his word and to be his servant.”
As McCorvey ended her 30-minute speech, audience members rose to their feet once again.
A 43-year-old woman who asked that her name not be used because she hadn’t discussed the situation with her adopted daughter, said she appreciated McCorvey’s speech because she felt it was genuine.
“I had an abortion when I was in my 20s, and it’s the biggest regret of my life,” she said. “Norma’s made some of the same mistakes I went through. I had no idea that she’d been through such a tough life. She speaks to the common people.”
For Father Michael Boyle, the assistant pastor of St. Eugene Orthodox Church, McCorvey’s speech was a challenge to him to maintain a loving attitude in the abortion debate.
“The one thing that struck me is that God wins the hearts of people with truth,” he said. “We think we need to have our arguments lined up, but in the end, it’s love that makes the difference. We get so caught up in the politics, that we forget about the cup of cold water.”