Sarah Lawrence College DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence Women's History Theses Women’s History Graduate Program 5-2018 Jane Roe Gone Rogue: Norma McCorvey’s Transformation as a Symbol of the U.S. Abortion Debate Christianna K. Barnard Sarah Lawrence College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.slc.edu/womenshistory_etd Part of the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Barnard, Christianna K., "Jane Roe Gone Rogue: Norma McCorvey’s Transformation as a Symbol of the U.S. Abortion Debate" (2018). Women's History Theses. 34. https://digitalcommons.slc.edu/womenshistory_etd/34 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Women’s History Graduate Program at DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence. It has been accepted for inclusion in Women's History Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jane Roe Gone Rogue: Norma McCorvey’s Transformation as a Symbol of the U.S. Abortion Debate Christianna K. Barnard Master of Arts in Women’s History Submitted in partial completion of the Master of Arts Degree at Sarah Lawrence College May 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Christianna Kathryn Barnard All rights reserved I’ve always hated Jane Roe. —Norma McCorvey ii Abstract This thesis explores the evolution of Norma McCorvey (1947-2017), better known as “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, as a symbol of the United States abortion debate. I trace her life from her childhood through her death, examining her decision to become the Roe plaintiff, rise to fame as a symbol of the pro-choice movement, defection to the pro-life movement, subsequent attempts to reverse the Roe decision, and memorializations by various political figures and media outlets. I examine the role that her poverty, education, non-normative sexuality, and whiteness played in the public construction of her as an unreliable figurehead. To make sense of her unconventional political trajectory as well as the spetacularizing media attention she drew over the course of her life, I engage with journalistic and scholarly writing about her, her two co- authored memoirs, and audiovisual representations of her life and activist work. Ultimately, I contest the caricaturization of McCorvey as “the ultimate victim,” a financial opportunist, and “white trash” by contextualizing the challenges she faced due to her class, sexuality, and the shifting rhetoric on abortion between 1970-2017. iii Acknowledgements Over the past year, my obsession with Norma McCorvey has seeped into every corner of my life. I’ve earnestly proposed the idea of an abortion memorial research/ road trip to friends as a summer adventure, spent hours trying to figure out how to make a facsimile of one of McCorvey’s political parody T-shirts (see Appendix figure 11), and managed to break all social norms by bringing up the history of reproductive rights with pretty much everyone I meet. I am tremendously grateful for the incredible (and patient) team of mentors, peers, friends, and family who have encouraged me, listened to me externally process every last detail from my chapter titles to my footnotes, and laughed (or grimaced) at all of my tasteless puns. First, my gratitude goes to Lyde Cullen Sizer. There is not a single page of this thesis that has not been influenced in some minuscule or massive way by our conversations, walks around campus, or your (delightfully snarky) marginalia. You have helped me to think critically and empathetically, never considering the two to be in opposition to one another. The past two years have instilled in me a passion for historical research and writing beyond what I could have ever imagined, and I am convinced that you are to blame. I have been incredibly fortunate to have Mary Dillard as my second reader and don. Your honesty and humor have emboldened me to explore lines of inquiry I would not have considered on my own. I can’t imagine writing this would have been half as much fun without your witticisms and down-to-earth advice. Thanks to my fellow thesis seminar members for your camaraderie and generous feedback. My particular gratitude goes to Sydney Thompson for your much-needed perspective on the New Christian Right and to Hannah Walker for your expertise on legal history and research. iv I am indebted to the reference librarians at Sarah Lawrence College as well as the librarians in the New York Public Library Microfilm Reading Room for their assistance with my research. Special thanks go to Kelleen Maluski, who expertly located several of the primary sources that shape my first and third chapters. I am also deeply grateful for the insights of Rev. Flip Benham, who graciously shared his personal memories of Norma McCorvey with me. Throughout my time at Sarah Lawrence, Tara James has been a fount of knowledge and an invaluable source of support. Thank you for connecting me with the resources that have made it possible for me to share my work at conferences this year. I would also like to thank the generous benefactors of the Gerda Lerner Scholarship, who helped fund my second year of graduate study. I am grateful for the support I’ve received from my parents, sisters, and grandmother as I’ve made the unconventional transition from the field of classical music to women’s history. It has a particular delight to share my excitement with you throughout this process. My love and gratitude also go to my dear friends, Alyssa and Alejandra, for your companionship during our many writing and coffee dates. And finally, to Nick. As I write this, I have a vivid memory of sitting in a noisy bar in Rittenhouse Square with you some three summers ago, listening to you talk about your work and thinking that it would be silly for me to study anything I cared about less than you did about film. I wonder if I would have pursued this degree in the first place if I hadn’t met you then. I’m glad I don’t know the answer, and profoundly thankful for your encouragement, intellect, and love throughout this tumultuous and wonderful journey. v Jane Roe Gone Rogue: Norma McCorvey’s Transformation as a Symbol of the U.S. Abortion Debate Abstract………………………………………………………………….…………..…………. iii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………….. iv Preface “Pixie”: Norma McCorvey before Roe v. Wade…………………………..…………………… vii Introduction The Marginalized Woman at the Center of the Abortion Debate……………….……..………… 1 Chapter 1 “I was just the person who became Jane Roe”: Norma McCorvey as Plaintiff and Early Pro-Choice Figure, 1970-1989……………………… 12 Chapter 2 “Some little old Texas girl who got in trouble”: Norma McCorvey and the Escalation of the Abortion Debate, 1989-1995…………………….. 38 Chapter 3 “She was Christ risen for our sins”: Norma McCorvey as Pro-Life Icon, 1995-2017……………………………………………...… 69 Epilogue Norma Leah McCorvey: Meditations on an Ambiguous Legacy……………………………... 100 Appendix Illustrations……...…………………………………………………………………………….. 118 Bibliography…………………………………………………...………………………….….. 127 vi Preface | “Pixie”: Norma McCorvey before Roe v. Wade, 1947-1970 It is difficult to imagine a woman who embodied more contradictions than Norma McCorvey. A Jehovah’s Witness during her childhood and self-proclaimed “heathen” during her twenties, she converted to Christianity not once, but twice: first in a highly publicized Evangelical ceremony, later into Roman Catholicism. An out lesbian known for playing up her femme or butchness depending on the woman she was pursuing, she had children with three different men, later renouncing all sexual activity for a purportedly celibate lifestyle. But central to her life was the greatest discrepancy of all: she was “Jane Roe,” the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, yet she dedicated the final twenty-two years of her life fighting the Supreme Court’s Roe decision— a ruling which she never benefited from given that she never received an abortion. McCorvey’s ideological conversion is all the more fascinating as it was not an isolated incident. Roe v. Wade was tried in the Supreme Court alongside another case, Doe v. Bolton, the product of lawyer Margie Pitts Hames’s crusade against what she referred to as Georgia’s “cumbersome, costly, and time consuming” abortion restrictions.1 Like Roe v. Wade, Hames and the legal team behind Doe v. Bolton protected their pregnant plaintiff by assigning her a pseudonym: “Mary Doe.” “Mary Doe,” whose real name was Sandra Cano (then Sandra Bensing, later also referred to as Sandra Bensing-Cano), was, like McCorvey, a white woman living in poverty. Estranged from her abusive husband, she had already given birth to two children whom she lost custody of when they were toddlers.2 Neither Cano nor McCorvey ever testified or appeared in court, but their affidavits were central documents in their respective 1 N. E. H. Hull and Peter Charles Hoffer, Roe V. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2001), 159. 2 Mark Curriden, "Doe vs. Bolton: Mary Doe Has a Change of Heart, Pickets Abortion Clinics," American Bar Association Journal 75, no. 7 (1989): 26; David J. Garrow, Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade, (New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1994), 426-427, 444-447, 465, 497. vii cases.3 In 1989, eight years before McCorvey’s conversion, Cano became an activist with Operation Rescue. Additionally, she claimed that she never wanted an abortion, but rather, had been duped by Hames and forced to sign the affidavit without understanding its significance.4 While both women became icons of the pro-life movement, there is another key divide between them. As Roe became synonymous with legalized abortion, McCorvey’s story would become a matter of public fascination for decades, while Cano’s life would be nearly forgotten.