Books in Brief

I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice, by Norma McCorvey with Andy Meisler (HarperCollins, 209 pp., $23)

POOR Norma McCorvey. The “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade has gone public with her life story, and it’ s about as depressing a story as one can read (and is written, despite the aid of Andy Meisler, with the sophistication of an eighth-grade term paper). Norma grows up poor, uneducated, and abused. A brief marriage at 16 ends in more abuse and a baby girl, forcibly adopted by Norma’s mother. She continues life as a drinking, drug-taking drifter, getting pregnant again twice. She gives the second baby up for adoption, and is desperate to get rid of the third when she meets Sarah Weddington, to whom she lies—so she can be used for Miss Weddington’s planned court challenge to abortion laws—that the pregnancy is the result of a rape. She is used by Miss Weddington, who leads her to believe that the case will help her get an abortion (it doesn’t), and who ignores her during the case and after. Mrs. McCorvey has now “come out” as Jane Roe, to get some attention, and perhaps to convince herself she is a hero. The book is dedicated to the “Jane Does who died for Choice.” Eerily, that could mean the millions of baby girls who have died since Roe.

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About the Author

Marie McFadden

About the Author

Jack Fowler

Jack Fowler is a contributing editor at National Review and a senior philanthropy consultant at American Philanthropic.

ER

About the Author

Ed Rubenstein

I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice, by Norma McCorvey with Andy Meisler (HarperCollins, 209 pp., $23)

POOR Norma McCorvey. The “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade has gone public with her life story, and it’ s about as depressing a story as one can read (and is written, despite the aid of Andy Meisler, with the sophistication of an eighth-grade term paper). Norma grows up poor, uneducated, and abused. A brief marriage at 16 ends in more abuse and a baby girl, forcibly adopted by Norma’s mother. She continues life as a drinking, drug-taking drifter, getting pregnant again twice. She gives the second baby up for adoption, and is desperate to get rid of the third when she meets Sarah Weddington, to whom she lies—so she can be used for Miss Weddington’s planned court challenge to abortion laws—that the pregnancy is the result of a rape. She is used by Miss Weddington, who leads her to believe that the case will help her get an abortion (it doesn’t), and who ignores her during the case and after. Mrs. McCorvey has now “come out” as Jane Roe, to get some attention, and perhaps to convince herself she is a hero. The book is dedicated to the “Jane Does who died for Choice.” Eerily, that could mean the millions of baby girls who have died since Roe.