WASHINGTON, January 19, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Norma McCorvey, the former “Jane Roe” whose case first legalized abortion on demand 32 years ago, today announced her formal request that the U.S. Supreme Court revisit Roe v. Wade, and make abortion illegal. She cites the long-lasting and devastating effect abortion has on women – McCorvey’s case cites the sworn testimony of more than 1,000 women hurt by abortion.
“This is the day I’ve longed for,” said McCorvey, who deeply regrets her role in legalizing abortion. “Now we know so much more, and I plead with the Court to listen to the witnesses and re-evaluate Roe v. Wade. It was a dreadful day in America when the Supreme Court allowed a woman to kill her own child.”
“With each child aborted, there is another tragedy: the harm to the mother,” McCorvey continued. “I’ve worked in abortion facilities, and I’ve seen firsthand the horrific nature of abortion and its devastation to women and girls.”
Allan Parker, president of The Justice Foundation and lead attorney on the case, said much has changed since the high court’s 1973 ruling.
“We’re asking the Court to find, based on the changed legal and factual conditions, that it would be a grave injustice to continue Roe v. Wade,” Parker said.
“Norma has presented over 5,300 pages of significant, sufficient, and compelling evidence of substantial changes in factual and legal conditions,” Parker said, noting the evidence includes sworn testimony by women who suffered from their abortions as well as testimony from scientific and medical experts and abortion facility workers.
After reviewing this substantial evidence in McCorvey’s appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit last year, Judge Edith Jones stated that she “fervently hoped that the Court would someday acknowledge such developments and re-evaluate” the Roe case accordingly.
“McCorvey presented evidence that goes to the heart of the balance Roe struck between the choice of a mother and the life of her unborn child,” Judge Jones explained. “First, there are about a thousand affidavits of women who have had abortions and claim to have suffered long-term emotional damage and impaired relationships from their decision.
Studies by scientists, offered by McCorvey, suggest that women may be affected emotionally and physically for years afterward and may be more prone to engage in high-risk, self-destructive conduct as a result of having had abortions.”
“In sum, if courts were to delve into the facts underlying Roe’s balancing scheme with present-day knowledge, they might conclude that the woman’s ‘choice’ is far more risky and less beneficial, and the child’s sentience far more advanced, than the Roe Court knew.”
Read more detail about McCorvey’s case at the Operation Outcry.