Norma Mccorvey

Susan Carpenter McMillan ("No More Exploiting of Jane Roe," Commentary, Aug. 16) outlines how the pro-life community must now gently deal with the changed Norma McCorvey and not exploit her as the "lesbian-run" women's movement did. Then, in her next breath, she goes on to do her own exploiting by accusing pro-choicers of lying to this poor victim to encourage her to pursue her now famous case. In truth, McCorvey is a nothing in this entire scenario; most people, until a few days ago, did not even know her real name.

Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" of the Roe vs. Wade case who is now opposed to abortion, is accused of pushing an abortion clinic worker in a dispute over a parking space. The scuffle happened March 8 in a parking lot shared by A Choice for Women clinic and the national headquarters of Operation Rescue. McCorvey, who works at Operation Rescue, bumped Tina Gannon's van with her car and then pushed the woman down, police said. Gannon, 35, a secretary at the abortion clinic, was not injured.

She finally disclosed her true identity. She finally admitted she had lied when she claimed a rape had caused the pregnancy that led to legalized abortion in America. She finally came to grips with being gay. And she finally made a career of helping women exercise their right to choose. Norma McCorvey said more than once that--finally--she had found the kind of peace that had eluded her most of her life.

She finally disclosed her true identity. She finally admitted she had lied when she claimed a rape had caused the pregnancy that led to legalized abortion in America. She finally came to grips with being gay. And she finally made a career of helping women exercise their right to choose. Norma McCorvey said more than once that--finally--she had found the kind of peace that had eluded her most of her life.

I felt strange watching the face on TV that had for too many years been the symbol of everything I vehemently opposed. It was the face of legalized abortion. The face of tragedy. The face of Norma McCorvey. Through the years I had seen her on various news programs, as the "Jane Roe" of Roe vs. Wade, which in one broad sweep had overturned all protective laws for unborn humans and opened the floodgates of destruction through the ninth month of pregnancy.

She was a ninth-grade dropout thrust at random into the headlights of a divisive social movement--but she was also a powerful symbol. It's no wonder, analysts say, she flipped over last week from the complex, intellectual ideology of the abortion rights movement to the security of a fundamentalist faith dedicated to "saving babies." Norma McCorvey, they say, is a classic religious convert, a woman searching for meaning and structure in an ambivalent world. For many years, McCorvey was the silent, invisible "Jane Roe" plaintiff in the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.

Roe vs. Wade is one of this year's loudest political rallying cries--immediately familiar, and immediately dividing the audience. Already, in either party or both, someone is probably saying, "Where is Jane Roe? What happened to her? Can we get her?" There are many such names, equally known if less divisive: Brown vs. Board of Education. Miranda vs. Arizona. Gideon vs. Wainwright. Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke.

Dallas police searched for a gunman who shot out two windows and a glass door at the home of "Jane Roe," the woman whose pregnancy led to the legalization of abortion. Norma McCorvey, 41, who went by the pseudonym Jane Roe in the Roe vs. Wade abortion case, was shaken by the shooting at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" of the Roe vs. Wade case who is now opposed to abortion, is accused of pushing an abortion clinic worker in a dispute over a parking space. The scuffle happened March 8 in a parking lot shared by A Choice for Women clinic and the national headquarters of Operation Rescue. McCorvey, who works at Operation Rescue, bumped Tina Gannon's van with her car and then pushed the woman down, police said. Gannon, 35, a secretary at the abortion clinic, was not injured.

The cross currents in the abortion issue are many. A highway sign on Route 99 in California's Central Valley reads, if I remember, "The right to an abortion," but the words an abortion are stricken and the word kill is interlineated. At the same time, in 1988, for the first time in a decade, the California Legislature did not include a budgetary prohibition on the use of public funds for abortion. "Roe v. Wade," the paperback edition of a book published a year ago by Macmillan, examines where this country has been on the issue of abortion.

Susan Carpenter McMillan ("No More Exploiting of Jane Roe," Commentary, Aug. 16) outlines how the pro-life community must now gently deal with the changed Norma McCorvey and not exploit her as the "lesbian-run" women's movement did. Then, in her next breath, she goes on to do her own exploiting by accusing pro-choicers of lying to this poor victim to encourage her to pursue her now famous case. In truth, McCorvey is a nothing in this entire scenario; most people, until a few days ago, did not even know her real name.

When Operation Rescue opened an office in Dallas next door to the abortion clinic where Norma McCorvey worked, the woman who had by then become the symbol of the abortion-rights movement took to taunting Operation Rescue's leader, the Rev. Flip Benham, with insults and gallows humor.

I felt strange watching the face on TV that had for too many years been the symbol of everything I vehemently opposed. It was the face of legalized abortion. The face of tragedy. The face of Norma McCorvey. Through the years I had seen her on various news programs, as the "Jane Roe" of Roe vs. Wade, which in one broad sweep had overturned all protective laws for unborn humans and opened the floodgates of destruction through the ninth month of pregnancy.

Norma McCorvey--the "Jane Roe" in Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision that legalized abortion--recently announced that she has become a born-again Christian and is opposed to abortion. Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion groups tout this as a devastating blow to those who support reproductive freedom. Their political posturing about McCorvey's decision is a clear indication that they have never truly understood the meaning of the pro choice movement.

She was a ninth-grade dropout thrust at random into the headlights of a divisive social movement--but she was also a powerful symbol. It's no wonder, analysts say, she flipped over last week from the complex, intellectual ideology of the abortion rights movement to the security of a fundamentalist faith dedicated to "saving babies." Norma McCorvey, they say, is a classic religious convert, a woman searching for meaning and structure in an ambivalent world. For many years, McCorvey was the silent, invisible "Jane Roe" plaintiff in the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.

Beset by a flurry of setbacks on Capitol Hill, abortion rights advocates now face a new headache: the splashy defection of "Jane Roe." As with all abortion matters, those in favor and those against have opposing views about the impact of Norma McCorvey's decision to join forces with the anti-abortion Operation Rescue. She was the plaintiff in the 1973 Supreme Court case that gave women the right to abortions.

The woman whose unwanted pregnancy helped establish the legal right to an abortion nearly a quarter of a century ago said Thursday that she now believes abortion is wrong in some cases and pledged to begin "helping women save their babies." "Once you know the realities of an abortion and what goes along with it, it stays with you," said Norma McCorvey, better known as the pseudonymous Jane Roe of the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.

The woman whose unwanted pregnancy helped establish the legal right to an abortion nearly a quarter of a century ago said Thursday that she now believes abortion is wrong and pledged to begin "helping women save their babies." "Once you know the realities of an abortion and what goes along with it, it stays with you," said Norma McCorvey, better known as the pseudonymous Jane Roe of the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.