Norma McCorvey, RIP

Norma McCorvey, better known as Jane Roe—the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade—died over the weekend.

As the obituary at the link notes, she was a complicated woman—accidental architect of one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions of the past century, and eventually one of its fiercest opponents. In 2005, she petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Roe, on the primary basis that she, the plaintiff in the original case, regretted her part in the decision. Obviously, the Court declined.

Many believed her conversion to be less about true conviction than an attempt to capitalize on fame. Obviously, no one can know what her true intentions actually were, why she eventually abandoned and took up rhetorical arms against the cause that still considers her to be something of a patron saint. But her actions following her joining of the pro-life cause seemed sincere, if ineffective as tactics. Those, in the end, are all we can judge. Perhaps she acted so rashly, in picketing judicial confirmation hearings, out of a sense of guilt for what she had helped wrought. Or perhaps she was simply seeking attention.

Finally, one cannot help but wonder what became of the child that McCorvey bore only months before the Roe decision was handed down. Her pregnancy with that child, her desire to terminate that pregnancy, was what led the Court to consider the constitutionality of state abortion restrictions in the first place. It seems safe to assume that McCorvey never had any further interaction with, or knowledge of, the child she gave up for adoption. That individual presumably has no knowledge of the complicated role they have played in American history.

McCorvey, of course, did know. She might not have a famous name, and her death will get little coverage in a media obsessed with Donald Trump. But her legacy continues to have a deep and consequential impact on American life.

RIP.