Jane Roe

Most of this taken from a CNN article on Norma McCorvey.

Of course, an exploration of Roe V. Wade could not be complete without some information about who Jane Roe was and is. There's a book in that story too.

Norma McCorvey was a 21 yr old single (divorced) woman who had been brought up in a far from functional family and married at the age of 16. She was needed for the class action suit as a pregnant woman who wanted an abortion; to illustrate the effects of a pregnancy on a woman's life.

Whether she really understood what she would be up against is hard to say. Whether anyone involved knew what she would be up against is hard to say. Given the testimony by Sarah Weddington regarding the status of women's rights to earn a fair living at the time, it seems like such a far off dream compared to today.

I need to look into what years various arguments were made or various changes occurred to make all that history. DH and I were surprised at the state of things described by Weddington in the testimony though. Just support of my idea that we have forgotten what Roe V. Wade is really about over the past 30+ years.

Anyway, back to Norma/Jane. Did she know that she would have to carry this baby to term to participate in this trial? I can't imagine that she would have been naive enough to think that the trial would end soon enough for her to abort. I think statements were made in one article that I read that it was too late even when she went in front of the Texas Judiciary. The baby was born before the second hearing of the supreme court, certainly.

And what of that baby now? Does the offspring know the court case surrounding its birth? What an interesting story there?

So Norma is now a Catholic fighting for the rights of the unborn. In some ways, she is saving more babies and women because of the law. She works in a rescue mission helping girls make the choice to have those babies. A far better support than anything that was available to her before Roe V. Wade. Her conversion to Christianity happened in 1995. Quite recently. She has written two books that I need to look into: "I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice," and "Won by Love" the story written after her baptism. Would be very interesting to read of this before and after.

So her take now is that she was used by the lawyers Weddington and Coffee. They are described as fresh out of law school. Who would give a supreme court argument to a couple of fresh-outs? Did this reflect the lack of respect for what they were arguing for? Was this just something these two starry eyed lawyers went through law school specifically to do? Another book, right there. Very interesting. Did they have any guidance from more seasoned lawyers? Certainly, as inexperienced lawyers, they would have put ego a bit before the care and nurturing of this 9th grade drop out divorcee from Texas. Class being what it is and women lawyers being as rare as they would have been in 1973.

So, I need to get more info on Weddington, Coffee and why it took till well after 1973 for the 14th amendment to be applied to women.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Interesting side note: Spell check on Blogger.com suggests to replace Weddington with Hedonistic.