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."