Decades later, `Roe' struggles to make ends meet

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

DALLAS - Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of the historic abortion decision Roe vs. Wade, spent much of her youth homeless and hungry. Three decades later, the abortion fight is still raging in Supreme Court hearings and McCorvey is still hungry.

"We've got a little bread left and some more potatoes. We're just trying to keep our faith together and hope up," McCorvey said this week by phone from the Dallas home she shares with a longtime friend.

Things have reached a financial crisis point again for McCorvey, 58, who became a symbol for abortion rights as the original plaintiff in the pivotal 1973 Supreme Court case that allowed women to terminate pregnancies. Two decades later, she famously switched sides in the contentious debate and became the standard bearer for abortion rights opponents.

Abortion is one of the issues facing Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. in confirmation hearings this week.

Since McCorvey's change in stance on abortion and high-profile religious conversion, she has supported herself by speaking on behalf of her Crossing Over Ministry. But in the past two years, she said, she hasn't been able to make appearances because she's the primary caretaker for her friend Connie Gonzales, who suffered a stroke and is paralyzed on her right side.

"It's not easy. We mostly depend on the ministry for money, but the ministry is running out. We're down to paying half of a bill here and half of another there. If we have money, we send everybody $10," McCorvey said.

Feeling desperate, McCorvey sent a plea to a fellow abortion opponent on Monday.

"I wrote him a letter and asked if he could send us a small donation because we were hungry," she said. He then asked for her blessing to forward the request to the people on his contact list.

"The Lord said ask and you shall receive. Norma is asking. Hopefully you can help and perhaps even spread her request to other pro-lifers," the e-mail request read.

By Wednesday, the appeal had crossed the nation.

"Tons of people have called and said they're willing to help and will send us a check," said McCorvey. "It's all just promises so far, but God is good, and he'll feed his children, and they'll help."

The Rev. Flip Benham, who baptized McCorvey in a backyard swimming pool in Garland, Texas, in 1995, said he was surprised when he received the e-mail donation request and wasn't initially sure it was legitimate. He said he hadn't talked to her or Gonzales for a couple of years and wasn't aware of their dire circumstances.

"I have been far away from the situation. I don't know what God is doing with Miss Norma," said Benham, who now lives in North Carolina, where he continues his fight against legalized abortion. "What makes me sad, I guess, is that she would put out a public notice."

Even so, Benham said McCorvey doesn't need to worry.

"It's out to everyone now. We love her. She knows the Christian community will come together and help her. If she's hungry now, she won't be hungry for long. The help is on the way."

McCorvey has been in need before. She was homeless when she met the woman she now cares for.

"She was working in a market. I was hungry, and I went in there and stole a can of soup. She told me that she didn't want to call the police on me," she said. "Connie has seen me go through so many changes.

"She would walk into this house in the '70s and '80s and I'd be drunk on the floor, stoned out of my mind. She would always just pick me up and tell me it was going to be OK. She's found me when I had sliced my wrists open. She's the most positive role model I've ever had in my life."

Today she spends most of her days looking after Gonzales, and continues to support the repeal of Roe vs. Wade.

McCorvey became involved in one of the most divisive legal decisions when she became pregnant for the third time and approached a lawyer saying she wanted an abortion. The 21-year-old unmarried carnival worker was then selected to be the plaintiff, Jane Roe, in a class-action lawsuit filed in Dallas seeking to invalidate Texas' anti-abortion law. The case went to the Supreme Court, which legalized abortion.

In 2003, she went back to federal district court in Dallas, asking that the original case be heard again. The request was denied, but she hopes the Supreme Court will consider hearing the case.

"I still have a lot of shame for being involved with Roe vs. Wade. Even though I know I've been forgiven by God, to tell you the truth, most of the time I can't forgive myself," she said.

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(c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.