It started with one woman, carrying an unwanted child, two attorneys seeking a test case, and three years litigating through the appeals courts. Norma McCorvey brought suit against the state of Texas claiming that the state’s anti abortion legislation was unconstitutional. Her case ended in the Supreme Court with the landmark decision legalizing abortion in the U.S., Roe v. Wade.
On January 22 , 2010 the United States marks the 37th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion. This decision allows women to terminate a pregnancy until the fetus reaches viability. It remains one of the most controversial and divisive decisions ever made by the Court.
Norma McCorvey, a woman who worked as a carnival barker, sought to have a legal abortion in Texas, where she lived. Texas allowed abortion only if the life of the mother was endangered. She claimed that she wanted a safe, clinically performed procedure which was denied her by Texas law and went to court to test the constitutionality of the Texas law. Though often vilified, Norma McCorvey’s personal story does not end with the Supreme Court’s decision in her favor in Roe v. Wade.
Norma McCorvey, describes herself as someone who could “out-cuss the most crass of men and women … out-drink many of the Dallas taverns' regulars” and spit in the faces of anti-abortion activists. After it became known that she was “Jane Roe” of Roe v Wade, she had to install steel doors on her home to avoid being shot.
Despite this view of herself, McCorvey repented of her role in Roe v. Wade. Although she initially went to court to gain permission to have a legal abortion, she carried her child to term and gave it up for adoption. She later became a Christian, a Catholic and pro-life activist.
In 1994 she converted to Christianity. She describes part of her conversion experience in these words:
I was sitting in [Operation Rescue's ] offices when I noticed a fetal development poster. The progression was so obvious, the eyes were so sweet. It hurt my heart, just looking at them.
I ran outside and finally, it dawned on me. "Norma," I said to myself, "They're right." I had worked with pregnant women for years. I had been through three pregnancies and deliveries myself. I should have known.
Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that's a baby! It's as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth--that's a baby!
In 1998, she was initiated into the Catholic Church by Fr. Frank Pavone, the International Director of Priests for Life. In 1997, McCorvey started her own pro-life ministry Roe No More.
McCorvey’s journey to Christianity and Catholicism sets an example for all of us. As Christians, Jesus’ greatest commandment, to love God and our neighbor, forms our highest calling. This call comes to us individually: to love our children from the moment of conception, to cherish the life within as precious, sacred and irreplaceable. Love calls us to reverence life from its earliest moments with our words and actions.
Archbishop Chaput, O.F.M Cap. reminds us to “form a strong and genuinely Catholic” conscience” so that we see clearly the path before us concerning unborn children. He calls us to stand against the prevailing law and opinions of our times to “believe in the sanctity of developing human life.”
As for Norma McCorvey so for us. The witness of our personal and family lives as we uphold the sanctity of life from the moment of conception calls for deep personal conversion to Jesus and dedication to the Gospel. Such conversion comes from the Holy Spirit within us. To stand as a witness takes inner courage, determination to love, and indwelling grace.
[ When] we seek [Christ] now, in this world, it is you we find, and only you . . . It is you Christians who participate in divinity, as your liturgy proclaims; it is you ‘divine men [and women]’ who ever since [Christ’s] ascension have been his representatives on earth. . . . You are the salt of the earth. (Chaput).
To see the sources for this article check the following internet sites:
- Wikipedia for a synopsis of Roe v Wade and the life of Norma McCorvey. See the reference sections of the Wikipedia article for the full Supreme Court texts of Roe v Wade and for more of the story of Norma Mc Corvey.
- Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Rendering Unto Caesar: The Catholic Political Vocation, for the quotations from the Archbishop.
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