DALLAS (AP) — The woman at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion has died at the age of 69. Journalist Joshua Prager, who is working on a book about McCorvey, says she died Saturday morning, Feb. 18, at an assisted living center in Katy, Texas.
Norma McCorvey was 22, unmarried, unemployed and pregnant for the third time in 1969 when she sought an abortion in Texas, where it was illegal except to save a woman’s life. The subsequent lawsuit, known as Roe v. Wade, led to the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established abortion rights.
As the court case progressed, McCorvey gave birth and gave her daughter up for adoption.
McCorvey revealed her real name in the 1980s. She later became an outspoken opponent of abortion.
The Rev. Frank Pavone, an anti-abortion rights activist, released a statement Saturday, saying, “Norma has been a friend of mine, and of Priests for Life, for more than 20 years. She was victimized and exploited by abortion ideologues when she was a young woman but she came to be genuinely sorry that a decision named for her has led to the deaths of more than 58 million children.”
