The lesbian who switched sides in the Roe v Wade abortion fight said she only did it for the money
Norma McCorvey, 1998, also known as Jane Roe in Roe v Wade, the case that legalised abortion in the US. S/FILES (CHRIS KLEPONIS/AFP via Getty)
It has been revealed that Norma McCorvey, who used the pseudonym Jane Roe in the case Roe v Wade and fought to legalise abortion in the US, only switched sides to campaign against abortion for money.
McCorvey, who identified as a lesbian but had relationships with men and women, helped bring abortion rights to women across America in 1973.
She led the case in the Supreme Court after she fell pregnant in 1970 and was financially unstable. Abortions were illegal, and McCorvey did not want to continue with the pregnancy so decided challenge the law in her home state of Texas.
The historic ruling of 7-2 set the precedent for the future of abortion and women’s rights across the country, although it was too late for McCorvey, who had to give birth and put the child up for adoption.
Although she became an advocate for abortion rights after Roe v Wade, she later became a born-again Christian and turned on her work for women’s rights to became an anti-abortion campaigner.
She converted to Catholicism, renounced her decades-long relationship with her partner Connie Gonzalez and became the “poster girl” for the cause as her switching sides was used by Christian groups to prop up the movement.
But now, according to the Los Angeles Times, a new documentary titled AKA Jane Roe reveals that McCorvey became an anti-abortion activist for money.
McCorvey passed away in 2017 at the age of 69 and the documentary, which will premiere on Friday, May 22, on FX, was filmed in the months before her death.
In the film, she claims that she only campaigned for anti-abortion groups, including Operation Rescue which is now known as Operation Save America, because they were paying her.
She said: “I was the big fish. I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they’d put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That’s what I’d say.
“It was all an act. I did it well, too. I am a good actress.”
While filming, McCorvey reaffirmed her support for abortion rights. She said: “If a young woman wants to have an abortion, that’s no skin off my ass. That’s why they call it choice.”
Rob Schenck is an evangelical minister and former Operation Rescue leader, who has since distanced himself from the group.
He confirmed in AKA Jane Roe that McCorvey had been paid to take up an anti-abortion stance, and to prevent her from going “back to the other side”.
Schenck said: “There were times I wondered: Is she playing us?
“And what I didn’t have the guts to say was, because I know damn well we were playing her. What we did with Norma was highly unethical.”
