Left Wing News
2017-02-21 11:23:39 UTC
She was represented under a pseudonym in the Roe v Wade case, in
what ended up being a landmark and controversial Supreme Court
judgement in 1973.
Having turned to religion, McCorvey then said being part of the
decision to legalise abortion "was the biggest mistake of my
life".
She also unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn
Roe v Wade.
Her death, in a Texas care home, was confirmed to US media by a
journalist who had been working on a book on the case.
The ruling in January 1973 came after McCorvey, then a 25-year-
old single woman under the pseudonym "Jane Roe", challenged the
criminal abortion laws in Texas that ruled abortion was
unconstitutional, except in cases where the mother's life was in
danger.
Henry Wade was the Texas attorney general who defended the anti-
abortion law.
McCorvey first filed the case in 1969 - she was pregnant with
her third child and said she had been raped. But the case was
rejected and she was forced to give birth.
However, in 1973 her appeal made it to the US Supreme Court
where, by a vote of seven to two, the justices ruled that the
government lacked the power to prohibit abortions.
'Men making decisions about women's bodies'
Roe v Wade explained
The court's judgement was based on the decision that a woman's
right to terminate her pregnancy came under the freedom of
personal choice in family matters, as protected by the
Constitution.
McCorvey, having revealed her real name in the 1980s, went on to
clarify that she had not been raped as she had earlier claimed.
She had said so only to get permission for an abortion and speed
up her case.
By the time the legal challenges to her case were over, her
daughter was two and had been given away for adoption.
"I'm a simple woman with a ninth-grade education who wants women
not to be harassed or condemned," she told the New York Times in
1994, before she went on to denounce abortion. "It's no
glamorous thing to go through an abortion. I never had one, but
I've worked in three clinics and I know."
In an anti-abortion television advert broadcast earlier this
decade, she said: "Abortion has eliminated 50 million innocent
babies in the US alone since 1973. Abortion scars an untold
number of post-abortive mothers, fathers, and families too."
Before Roe v Wade, some states had already started to reform or
repeal laws on abortion, but women seeking a termination had to
do so illegally, at great expense, and often in unsafe
conditions.
One underground network run by women in Chicago said it
performed some 12,000 abortions in the late 1960s and early 70s,
before the court ruling was made.
In more recent years, the issue has proven to be among the most
divisive in US politics.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39016181
what ended up being a landmark and controversial Supreme Court
judgement in 1973.
Having turned to religion, McCorvey then said being part of the
decision to legalise abortion "was the biggest mistake of my
life".
She also unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn
Roe v Wade.
Her death, in a Texas care home, was confirmed to US media by a
journalist who had been working on a book on the case.
The ruling in January 1973 came after McCorvey, then a 25-year-
old single woman under the pseudonym "Jane Roe", challenged the
criminal abortion laws in Texas that ruled abortion was
unconstitutional, except in cases where the mother's life was in
danger.
Henry Wade was the Texas attorney general who defended the anti-
abortion law.
McCorvey first filed the case in 1969 - she was pregnant with
her third child and said she had been raped. But the case was
rejected and she was forced to give birth.
However, in 1973 her appeal made it to the US Supreme Court
where, by a vote of seven to two, the justices ruled that the
government lacked the power to prohibit abortions.
'Men making decisions about women's bodies'
Roe v Wade explained
The court's judgement was based on the decision that a woman's
right to terminate her pregnancy came under the freedom of
personal choice in family matters, as protected by the
Constitution.
McCorvey, having revealed her real name in the 1980s, went on to
clarify that she had not been raped as she had earlier claimed.
She had said so only to get permission for an abortion and speed
up her case.
By the time the legal challenges to her case were over, her
daughter was two and had been given away for adoption.
"I'm a simple woman with a ninth-grade education who wants women
not to be harassed or condemned," she told the New York Times in
1994, before she went on to denounce abortion. "It's no
glamorous thing to go through an abortion. I never had one, but
I've worked in three clinics and I know."
In an anti-abortion television advert broadcast earlier this
decade, she said: "Abortion has eliminated 50 million innocent
babies in the US alone since 1973. Abortion scars an untold
number of post-abortive mothers, fathers, and families too."
Before Roe v Wade, some states had already started to reform or
repeal laws on abortion, but women seeking a termination had to
do so illegally, at great expense, and often in unsafe
conditions.
One underground network run by women in Chicago said it
performed some 12,000 abortions in the late 1960s and early 70s,
before the court ruling was made.
In more recent years, the issue has proven to be among the most
divisive in US politics.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39016181