Baby at centre of landmark Roe vs Wade abortion case reveals her identity

The woman whose birth spurred the biggest changes to abortion laws ever seen in the United States, setting a legal precedent that remains in tact after nearly 50 years of attempts to narrow its scope, has revealed her identity.

Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, was the baby at the centre of the Supreme Court case Roe v Wade, which saw a women’s right to have an abortion protected under federal law.

Speaking to journalist Joshua Prager for his upcoming book The Family Roe: An American Story, Ms Thornton, a mother of three living in Arizona, said she had chosen to speak publicly for the first time because she wanted to free herself from the “secrets and lies” that had followed her for 50 years.

“I’m keeping a secret, but I hate it,” she said, revealing that she had never met her birth mother.

“I want everyone to understand that this is something I’ve chosen to do,” she told Mr Prager.

Ms Thornton’s biological mother Norma McCorvey was unmarried, unemployed and about to have her third child.

She sought to have an abortion in Texas, where the procedure was illegal, and launched a lawsuit under the pseudonym Jane Roe in 1969.

Ms McCorvey filed a case against Dallas County Attorney General Henry Wade, in a case that would take four years to be decided by the Supreme Court.

When the case was resolved, a triumphant Ms McCorvey appeared on the steps of the Supreme Court with famous women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred to celebrate the decision.

She had long before given birth and placed her child up for adoption.

Ms Thornton said she was aware she had been adopted while growing up, but it was only after a National Enquirer reporter tracked her down as a teenager that she learned of her connection to the famous case.

She said she began “shaking all over and crying” after finding out.

She briefly considered meeting her biological mother, but didn’t want the reunion to be “thrown into the Enquirer”.

She declined the offer to meet and the tabloid ended up running a story without naming Ms Thornton.

Ms Thornton revealed she spoke to her biological mother over the phone in 1994, and they ended up having a heated argument after Ms McCorvey told her she should have shown more gratitude for giving birth to her.

“I was like, ‘What?! I’m supposed to thank you for getting knocked up … and then giving me away?’” Ms Thornton said.

“I told her I would never, ever thank her for not aborting me.”

Ms Thornton said she grew up with adoptive parents who didn’t believe in abortion, and said her own views on the issue were complex.

She eventually came to the conclusion that religion and politics shouldn’t interfere with a woman’s right to choose, and doesn’t understand why it’s a “Government concern”.

She also decided abortion was not a part of who she was after falling pregnant at the age of 20.

Ms McCorvey became a prominent voice among abortion-rights activists, working at a Texas abortion clinic in the 1980s.

But in 1995 she had a made an unlikely U-turn, becoming an evangelical Christian and using her platform to speak out against abortion. 

She died of heart failure in 2017 aged 69.

Roe v Wade continues to be one of the most controversial pieces of legislation ever passed by the Supreme Court.

Hailed as a bedrock of female reproductive rights in the US, it is loathed by evangelicals and many rightwing politicians who see abortion as akin to murder.

Various state and federal laws have attempted to overturn aspects of the law, including the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act signed by President George W Bush in 2003, which banned a procedure used to perform second-trimester abortions.

The latest attempt from the state of Texas would ban abortion after six weeks in all cases including victims of rape and abortion.

On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice would sue the state to protect women’s rights.