By ARTHUR J. BREW
DALLAS--In one of the most stunning developments in the long
battle against abortion, Norma McCorvey—the Jane Roe of the infamous Roe v. Wade
1973 Supreme Court case--has turned toward a pro-life position. According to
news reports, while she now rejects unrestricted abortion, she still accepts
abortion in the first trimester. {Priests for Life note: This has now changed
and Norma is, in her own words, "100% pro-life, no exceptions."}
The Rev. Flip Benham, national director of Operation Rescue
and a fundamentalist minister, baptized McCorvey on August 8th in Dallas. After
attending the Hillcrest Christian Church, McCorvey said she has accepted Christ
and has resigned her position as marketing director at A Woman's Choice, local
abortion mill. In April, Operation Rescue had moved its headquarters next to the
facility and Benham and McCorvey eventually became friends.
Rescue's office manager is Ronda Mackey; her seven-year-old
daughter, Emily, invited McCorvey to attend church with her every time they met.
These invitations were often accompanied by hugs from the child, and in July,
McCorvey went to church with the Mackeys for the first time.
''I've had too many drunken nights and too many nights of not being able to
sleep,'' McCorvey said. "Once you know the realities of abortion and what goes
along with it, it stays with you. I've seen the clinic's freezer full of
fetuses."
On the first evening in church, she added, ''I was scared to
death. I thought the ceiling was going to come down. Jane Roe in church!? For
heaven's sakes!"
Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in 1973, and since
that time more than 33 million babies have fallen victim to a so-called right to
choose.
McCorvey married an itinerant steel worker at 16, but later
left him. She became an alcoholic and drug abuser and gave up her first two
children to adoption. She became pregnant again at 21 and shortly thereafter met
Texas lawyer Sarah Weddington who took her case to the Supreme Court to demand a
legal abortion. Before the issue was decided, she gave birth and put the child
up for adoption. In 1980, she admitted she was the Jane Roe of the case and
later wrote a book titled, I Am Roe.
Weddington, who is now a University of Texas professor, said,
"I'm shocked. At a time when we are working so hard to campaign for people who
are pro-choice and not having much luck, I didn't need this one. I'm certainly
sorry she gave the opposition a tool to use against the case. But it really
doesn't matter. The case was a class-action suit.''
Predictably, Kate Michelman, president of the National
Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, added, "It would be unfortunate
if the anti-choice movement exploits Norma McCorvey's personal decision in its
effort to deprive other women of their right to exercise reproductive choices."
McCorvey is looking forward to her new role. "I'll be serving
the Lord and helping women save their babies. I will hold a pro-life position
for the rest of my life."
In an ABC interview, she accused the pro-abortion people of
showboating. "I felt like they only cared about what I could do for them, not
what they could do for me," she said.
Jeff White, director of Operation Rescue California, added,
"We have been told that the new standing order at A Woman's Choice is, 'Don't
talk to Operation Rescue, don't even wave to them.' Pro-abortion forces are
powerless against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "
In regard to McCorvey, one veteran pro-lifer said with a
smile,
"The poster girl of the pro-abortion movement has walked off
the poster."
On August 10th, Michele Arocha Allen of the National
Right-to-Life Committee released this statement:
''Norma McCorvey, more than any other person, has symbolized
Roe v. Wade. As America begins to recognize the tragic error of abortion on
demand, it is extremely heartening to see that McCorvey is coming to the same
realization.
"Her daughter, now 25 (who was placed for adoption), was
protected by the Texas abortion law that was eventually struck down in 1973.
Unfortunately, millions of other unborn children were not as lucky as McCorvey's
daughter. We hope that McCorvey's evolution of thought will help to encourage
the eventual downfall of Roe v. Wade, and the full restoration of
protection and respect for innocent human life."
Fr. Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, made the
following comment on August ll:
"What has happened to [McCorvey] is happening to many
abortion providers and to even more people in the general public. People do not
move from a pro-life to a pro-abortion position. Overwhelmingly, the flow of
movement is in the opposite direction. Truth has an attractive power of its own,
even when the laws support error. The abortion mentality will collapse under its
own weight, no matter how much money or power tries to support it."
Priests for Life in the News
