The woman who became “Jane Roe” in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case where abortion was declared a constitutional right has died, according to a report.
Norma McCorvey died Feb. 18 at the age of 69 due to a heart ailment at an assisted-living facility in Katy, Texas, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The Post said the death was confirmed by journalist Joshua Prager, who is writing a book on Roe v. Wade.
Lawyers for McCorvey, who wanted to get out of an unwanted pregnancy, filed a suit with a Texas federal district court in 1970. They used the alias “Jane Roe” for McCorvey.
The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and on Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled, 7-2, that abortion was a right protected by the Constitution.
But McCorvey, then a mother of two, never ended up having an abortion. She gave birth to the baby in question, her daughter Melissa and later gave her up for adoption.
In the years since the Supreme Court case, McCorvey claimed that, unlike what was said in the suit, her pregnancy was not due to rape.
In 1995 McCorvey declared herself to be against abortion. She later pledged to fight the abortion industry, calling it a “lie.” She said she had “dedicated” the rest of her life to “undoing the law that bears my name.”
