Norma McCorvey, the pseudonymous plaintiff at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion, Roe V. Wade, passed away Saturday from a heart ailment, The Washington Post reported. She was 69.
McCorvey’s death was confirmed to the newspaper by Joshua Prager, a journalist currently in the midst of writing a book about the landmark court ruling. She died Saturday at an assisted-living facility in Katy, Texas, west of Houston, the Post reported.
In 1970, attorneys acting on McCorvey’s behalf sued Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade in an effort to allow their client to legally terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The case made it to the Supreme Court on appeal later that year, and was decided in a historic 7-2 ruling handed down in 1973.
In deciding the case, Justice Harry A. Blackmun wrote that the constitutionally-protected right to privacy encompasses the choice to terminate a pregnancy.
McCorvey originally appeared in court documents as ’Jane Roe,” but publicly identified herself as the lead plaintiff in the 1980s. She later became an active member of the pro-life movement and converted to Roman Catholicism a few years after becoming an evangelical Christian.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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