August 17: Jane Roe

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader Podcast. Today is August 17th, and our story is Jane Roe. In 1970, a troubled, pregnant 22-year-old Norma McCorvey signed her name to an affidavit. Two lawyers then took that affidavit, gave McCorvey the pseudonym Jane Roe, and made her the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade.

That case eventually made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in its 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade declared abortion a fundamental right. McCorvey spent the next two decades supporting abortion rights. But in 1995, while working at a Dallas abortion clinic, she encountered the group Operation Rescue. Soon afterward, her thinking about the case tried in her name dramatically changed. She described that change in her 1998 book, One by Love.

I was sitting in Operation Rescue's offices when I noticed a fetal development poster. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, ten-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that's a baby. I felt crushed under the truth of this realization. I had to face up to the awful reality. Abortion wasn't about products of conception. It wasn't about missed periods. It was about children being killed in their mother's wombs. All those years, I was wrong. Signing that affidavit, I was wrong. Working in an abortion clinic, I was wrong.

No more of this first trimester, second trimester, third trimester stuff. Abortion, at any point, was wrong. It was so clear, painfully clear. Three years after that experience, on August 17, 1998, McCorvey entered the Catholic Church. She remained a committed pro-life activist, working to overturn the Supreme Court case she helped launch until her death in February 2017.

Norma McCorvey's journey reminds us that understanding and compassion can lead to profound transformation. It also highlights the power of personal encounter and education in shaping convictions. Take time to educate yourself or someone else on the science of life and human dignity. Share what you learn respectfully with someone open to listening.

Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, August 18th, for another story of faith and courage in America.