Word: mccorvey
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...Norma McCorvey, in her 1994 book I Am Roe, described a feminist leader's visit to the Dallas women's clinic where McCorvey toiled as a volunteer. Intimidated by the woman's success and poise, McCorvey tried to salvage her own sense of importance by revealing what she had told few others: "I'm the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade." The woman, wrote McCorvey, "smiled and shook her head. 'No, no,' she said. 'I know who Jane Roe is. She wouldn't be here doing this kind of work...
There are a lot of things McCorvey has done and been that Jane Roe's millions of admirers probably wish she hadn't. Until she unmasked herself publicly in 1989, they could imagine Roe as noble and steadfast, embattled yet triumphant. They didn't envision a former drug addict and dealer; someone so spiritually needy that she ran through religions as if channel surfing; someone testy enough to (in the presence of a Texas Monthly reporter) invite a critic who accused her of killing babies to "bring yours over here and we'll do them...
...matter how her political stances have evolved, though, McCorvey's contribution to the history of abortion rights America has already been made. No backyard baptism will change the decision of the Supreme Court. More importantly, even if McCorvey had been an Operation Rescue follower 20 years ago, Weddington and her colleagues would have found another Roe to represent their fight; no doubt, the same rights would have been...
...However, McCorvey's decision is certainly a symbolic loss to the campaign for women's rights. For the last 20 years, abortion rights groups have had to defend the famous decision against constant attacks. In fact, McCorvey's recent conservative turn mirrors some of the Court's chipping away at its original decision, including restricting second trimester abortion rights which it had upheld through Roe v. Wade in more recent cases...
...While McCorvey was arguably never the voice of the revolution she began, the fact that she has defected from her cult status as revolutionary is a terrible blow to many advocates of women's rights. Even if McCorvey's change of mind won't overturn the decision of 1973, the country has lost one important liberal hero to the ranks of the ever-strengthening Right...