Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of ‘Roe v. Wade,’ Said She Was Paid to Take Anti-Abortion Stance
Documentary to air on FX on Friday
Norma McCorvey, the once-anonymous plaintiff in Roe vs. Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion in the U.S, admitted in what she called “a deathbed confession” that she was paid by anti-abortion groups to pretend she was “pro-life” and to campaign against abortion, she told documentary filmmakers during the last few months of her life.
KEY FACTS
McCorvey’s 1995 jump from abortion rights advocate to a fierce activist against the very law her own unwanted pregnancy ushered in has long been a complicated story within the U.S. abortion debate.
Her lawsuit in 1969 seeking to overturn the Texas law that prevented her from ending her pregnancy led to a Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, that established the right to have an abortion in the U.S. in 1973.
In a forthcoming documentary called AKA Jane Roe, McCorvey claimed she became a pro-life activist not because she regretted her decision, as she told the public, but for money.
The documentary shows evidence that McCorvey had been paid at least $456,911 in gifts by anti-abortion groups.
McCorvey thought abortion should be legal, she told the filmmakers in 2017: “If a young woman wants to have an abortion, that’s no skin off my ass. That’s why they call it choice.”
McCorvey made public anti-abortion statements as recently as 2012, when she starred in a political advertisement discouraging voters from voting for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying “he kills babies.”
The documentary, AKA Jane Roe, premieres Friday on FX.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“I was the big fish. I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they’d put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That’s what I’d say,” McCorvey says in the documentary, according to The Los Angeles Times. “It was all an act. I did it well too. I am a good actress.”
KEY BACKGROUND
In 1969, McCorvey was 22 and on her third pregnancy when she tried to get an abortion, which was illegal in Texas at the time unless it was to save the mother’s life. She was referred to Linda Coffee, a lawyer in Dallas who was looking for a case to challenge the Texas law. Coffee teamed up with former law school classmate Sara Weddington, who was known for testing anti-abortion statutes. In the three years it took for the case to go through the courts, McCorvey gave birth to a baby girl who she set up for adoption.
McCorvey came out as “Jane Roe” in the ‘80s, counseling women at pregnancy clinics. But in 1995, she declared she was “pro-life,” and said the abortion rights movement had used her as a pawn.
McCorvey died in 2017 in Katy, Texas.
SURPRISING FACT
In the film, McCorvey says she supported Hillary Clinton for president.
“I wish I knew how many abortions Donald Trump was responsible for,” McCorvey said. “I’m sure he’s lost count, if he can count that high.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/05/19/roe-vs-wade-plaintiff-was-paid-to-switch-sides-in-abortion-fight-documentary-reveals/#3a313a807c08