![]() ![]() And every now and then when she was there, they would say to her the few words that it was okay for her to speak. They didn't invite her to their book parties or their protests or their marches. But she didn't speak about abortion the way that did, and they really alienated her. She wanted, at that point, to become an advocate. Then she gets pregnant a third time, and that is the child that that becomes the Roe baby.Īnd when Norma steps into the spotlight in the late 1980s, she wanted a seat at the table. She gets pregnant again, places that child for adoption. Then, even though she's gay and is having affairs with women, she's also a prostitute at this time is occasionally sleeping with men. She begs her mother to take the child and later says her mother kidnapped the child - so it's, again, another lie - and places that child for adoption. And she often was telling about these sort of horrible things she suffered, which she didn't suffer. She often re-imagined herself as not a sinner, but a victim. She later alleges that her husband beat her that's maybe the first of many, many lies. She gets married at 16 and gets pregnant right away. The girl alleges, as Norma said to me, that Norma tried inappropriate things with her, and Norma's then sent away to a school for "delinquent children." She bounces through these schools, and she decides she's going to have a regular life with the white picket fence and all that. They're about 12 years old, they check into a motel, the police are called. But also, Norma goes across state lines with a friend of hers from school, a young girl. When she comes out to her church her parents, that is driven home in very dramatic fashion when first of all, her mother beats her. Joshua Prager: Norma was sort of the perfect person for me to tell the larger story of abortion in America through, because her life really was defined by a lot of the very same things that I think make abortion particularly fraught in America, particularly sex and religion and what she saw as the incompatibility or irreconcilability of those two things. How would you describe her to someone who is not well acquainted? ![]() This interview has been edited for length and clarity.ĭanielle Kurtzleben: While a lot of people have heard the Jane Roe, I would imagine far fewer know the name Norma McCorvey or know much about her. That story is one of both genuine conviction and opportunism, of sex and drugs and politics and class and fame and religion - all of which combine to create, as Prager puts it, a "uniquely American" tale. The book traces the history of American abortion politics through McCorvey's life story. Roe refers to Jane Roe, the pseudonym in this case for the woman who originally sought the abortion: Norma McCorvey.įor the latest installment of the NPR Politics Podcast Book Club, we interviewed Joshua Prager, author of The Family Roe. Wade, countless political candidates are invoking that 1973 Supreme Court case - but it can be easy to skim past that name without thinking about who Roe even was. One of the biggest names in politics this year is a woman that many people know nothing about. Wade ruling, with attorney Gloria Allred in front of the U.S. This April 26, 1989, file photo shows Norma McCorvey, left, known as "Jane Roe" in the 1973 landmark Roe v. ![]()
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