Who Is Norma McCorvey? Former Jane Roe Admits On Deathbed Supporting Antiabortion Movement Was A Sham

Norma McCorvey, better known as “Jane Roe,” the plaintiff in the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in the United States, says in a deathbed confession she was paid to become an antiabortion supporter.

The revelation comes in the documentary “AKA Jane Roe,” scheduled to air Friday on FX.

McCorvey, 69, died of heart failure on Feb. 18, 2017.

“This is my deathbed confession,” McCorvey says in the documentary. “I took their money and they took me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say. I did it well too. I am a good actress. Of course, I’m not acting now.”

She later added: “If a young woman wants to have an abortion, that’s no skin off my ass. That’s why they call it choice.”

The Guardian reported she received $450,000 from the antiabortion movement.

Evangelical pastor the Rev. Robert Schenck admits the payment was “unethical.”

McCorvey never actually had an abortion. She became pregnant in 1969 with her third child and decided to challenge abortion restrictions. In the three years it took the case to work its way through the courts, she gave birth and put the child up for adoption.

For more than two decades, McCorvey was the face of the abortion rights movement. She reversed her position in 1995, saying at the time she had found religion.

The issue of abortion rights is far from settled. States increasingly have been passing laws that restrict access to abortions many requiring burdensome waiting periods or requirements that doctors performing the procedures at clinics have hospital admitting rights.

The Supreme Court heard arguments March 4 on a Louisiana case involving admitting privileges, June Medical Services v. Gee. A decision – the first since Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch joined the court – was expected before the court recesses for the summer at the end of June. The law is nearly identical to one in Texas that already has been struck down.

A number of other cases are expected to work their way to the high court, including one challenging a Mississippi law that would ban abortion after 15 weeks (Whole Woman’s Health Organization v. Thomas Dobbs) and an Indiana law that requires parents to provide a government ID before giving consent for a minor’s abortion (Planned Parenthood of Indiana & Kentucky v. Adams et al).