|
|
|
|
|
Norma McCorvey Arrested at Sonia Sotomayor's Senate Confirmation Hearing by Gizem Unsalan July 14, 2009 |
|
photo by www.catholicnewsagency.com
|
|
|
|
|
The woman known as “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, the famous 1973 Supreme Court abortion rights ruling, was arrested yesterday at Sonia Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearing.
“Roe,” the 61-year-old Texan whose real name is Norma McCorvey, was arrested along with another anti-abortion protester at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The two entered the room where the hearing was taking place and began screaming while newly sworn Minnesota senator Al Franken was delivering his opening statement.
Although abortion is not expected to be a focus of the senators’ questions for Sotomayor today, prior to her arrest, McCorvey told reporters of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “I’m here to overturn Roe and defeat Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. She’s unworthy of the position. She’s Catholic. She’s even unworthy of taking communion because of her pro-abortion stance.”
McCorvey, who revealed during the 1980s that she was the “Roe” in the landmark case, came out as a lesbian in 1989. Three years later she split with her longtime partner, Connie Gonzales, and converted to Christianity before becoming an advocate of the anti-abortion movement in 1993. The following year, McCorvey published I Am Roe, her memoir of the court battle in Roe v. Wade.
McCorvey claimed in Roe v. Wade that she was pregnant as a result of rape, though now she says that wasn’t the case. Regardless of the circumstances, McCorvey gave birth to the baby, as the famous case took three years to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.
|
|
|
|
