LETTER TO THE EDITOR: McCorvey repented following Roe vs. Wade

Norma McCorvey was born into a dysfunctional family. She was always searching for the love and acceptance that she felt she hadn’t received from her mother. When she couldn’t find it in her family, she turned to drugs, alcohol, and men, and finally, to women as a lesbian. She meandered through her life aimlessly hooked on drugs, alcohol, and immoral sexual practices. She got pregnant twice and gave birth twice to babies fathered by different men. When the men abused her, she turned to lesbianism, but in truth, she was bisexual. In 1970, during her third pregnancy at two and a half months pregnant, Norma was feeling pretty low and out of hope, money and options. She sought help in trying to obtain an abortion from two feminist lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, who told her they could help her get an abortion, even though the state of Texas, where she lived, did not allow abortions. The lawyers wanted to know more about Norma, her life, and how she came to want this abortion. Thinking that the lawyers would refuse her case if she told them the truth about her uneducated, unskilled, drug- and alcohol-addicted life, she told them the big lie: “I was raped.” (pg. 122, “I Am Roe.” Norma McCorvey with Andy Meisler. HarperCollins Publishers. 1994.) (I hope you see the significance of the page number!) She agreed to become the plaintiff in their court action to try and overturn the law in Texas prohibiting abortions. However, to protect her identity, she became “Jane Roe” of Roe versus Wade. The case went all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, where it passed the court. It was immediately appealed by State District Attorney Henry Wade and went on Dec. 31, 1971 to the U.S. Supreme Court, which also agreed to hear the case of Doe vs. Bolton in conjunction with Roe vs. Wade. The case was heard by Justices Harry Blackmun, William Brennan, Warren Burger (chief justice), William Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, Potter Stewart, and Byron White. (There were still two empty seats on the Supreme Court at that time.) In a rare request from the Supreme Court Justices, a notice was sent out on June 26, 1972, that the justices wanted the case reargued in front of them. It was reargued on Oct. 11, 1972. In addition to the previously mentioned justices, the court now had also the two new justices Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist. On Jan. 22, 1973, the justices voted 7-2 to legalize abortion in every state for any reason. The seven justices for the measure were Blackmun, Brennan, Burger, Douglas, Marshall, Powell and Stewart. The two opposing justices were Rehnquist and White. They ruled that a fetus as a separate human being entitled to protection under the law was not backed up by anything in the Constitution of the United States. The case took so long that Norma’s baby was born before the end of the trial, and she gave the baby up for adoption. So, Norma McCorvey, “Jane Roe,” never personally had an abortion. But by then, she had so immersed herself in the whole process and had convinced herself that she was doing women a great service. At the urging of her two feminist attorneys, she agreed to keep the trial going. The trial gained so much press that it inflated her sense of importance and gave a boost to her morale. She was sought after by the press, she was, according to her memoirs, finally “somebody.” She obtained work in local abortion clinics and, according to her own words, “lived, ate, slept, and breathed abortion.” It was who she was; it was her identity. It seemed as if Satan had won over the soul of Norma McCorvey. However, God, through His church, had other plans in store for Norma. It took many years of hearing the words of Christ from the Christian protesters outside their abortion clinic and the unconditional love of the small child of one of the protesters to open Norma’s heart to God’s love, but God’s love won out through the efforts of His church. Through the actions of Pastor Philip Benham, Randall Terry, and their friend Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Norma finally began to realize that God loved her and that what she was doing was very wrong. Through the faithful evangelization of Christians, a lost sheep was brought back to the fold. Norma had never known Christian unconditional love before, even though her mother was a Roman Catholic. It totally disarmed and overwhelmed her. She was convicted of her sins by the Holy Spirit, and sought desperately to make things right. Can you imagine the enormity of the weight she must have felt, once she realized that the deaths of over 35 million babies (at the time of her conversion) were weighing on her soul? Norma was baptized into the Christian faith, but found she was still aching and searching for God. She started a ministry titled “Roe No More” and started going from state to state speaking out against abortion and working towards overturning Roe v. Wade. Finally, after many conversations with Father Pavone, other priests and a bishop, on Aug, 17, 1989, she was received into the Catholic Church, made her first confession, received absolution, and received Communion. Still, her heart ached; as God fully opened her eyes to the enormity of the abortion industry protected under Roe versus Wade. Since becoming a Catholic, she renamed her ministry Crossing Over Ministry because she crossed over from darkness to the light. Crossing Over is now a worldwide ministry dedicated to women who have been harmed by abortion, who are considering abortions, or who chose life for their babies and need help and encouragement. Her organization has been a great help to pro-life groups around the world. Norma states, “The new love and joy I have in Christ overflows into my daily life and work, which is devoted full time to my ministry,” and she humbly thanks those members of the laity who prayed for her before, during, and since her conversion. Norma and her staff are now church to a hurting world of women. Borrowing from the Rev. James Lentini’s (pastor of Holy Cross Church in Dover) message in our weekly bulletin, here are some “Statistics to be considered. The number of unborn children put to death by abortion last year is greater than the number of casualties sustained during the U.S. Civil War. The number of unborn children put to death in two years is greater than the number of casualties sustained in all of the wars combined since the founding of our nation. The number of children aborted since 1973 is greater than the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, the District of Columbia, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Idaho, West Virginia, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah, Iowa, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon and Kentucky combined. Over 54,000,000!” Norma McCorvey freely admitted she lied about being raped. She never had an abortion. We have heard this year of the lies told by abortion providers and seen the videos of them arranging for the sale of aborted baby body parts. Roe v. Wade, allowing for abortion in all 50 states, and Doe v. Bolton, allowing for abortion for any reason, has contributed to the deaths of more than 54 million innocent souls. Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano (Doe v. Bolton) on March 23, 1997, both having repented of their parts in this tragedy, had plaques installed in the National Memorial for Unborn Children “apologizing and repenting their involvement in the Tragedy of Abortion to the millions of women and unborn babies who experienced the violence of abortion.” (pg. 236. “Won by Love” Norma McCorvey with Gary Thomas. Thomas Nashville Publishers. Nashville, Tenn. 1997.) And yet, here we are, 43 years later, still allowing the destruction of millions of innocent lives every year. May God have mercy on our souls, for if you do nothing, you are just as guilty as those directly involved.

Rose Pritchett Felton