The history of the Roe v Wade, which has proved controversial since it was made in 1973, dates back half a century. In a statement to ABC News, Thornton indicated that she worries the Dobbs ruling could be an omen for future unrest. The pair spoke on the phone in 1989, Norma McCorvey aka 'Jane Roe' (left) and her attorney Gloria Allred at the Supreme Court in 1989, the year she made her identity known. But as Justice Blackmun noted, the length of the legal process had made that impossible. Instead, I called her adoptive mother, Ruth, who said that the family had learned about Norma. Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in the landmark abortions rights case, gave birth to Shelley Lynn Thornton before the law was changed. ', Shelley Thornton (pictured during childhood) knew she was adopted but didn't know who her birth mother was until 1989 when she was contacted by reporters from The National Enquirer. They explained that the tabloid had recently found the child Roseanne Barr had relinquished for adoption as a teenager, and that the pair had reunited. She said the relationship turned platonic in the early 1990s and that once she became a Christian she believed homosexuality was wrong. When I read, in early 2010, that Norma had not had an abortion, I began to wonder whether the child, who would then be an adult of almost 40, was aware of his or her background. For example, states could decide whether abortions were allowed only during the first and second trimester but not the third (typically beyond 28 weeks). It was a game. The Supreme Courthas voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion in the United States. Jonah recalled the moment of his mothers discovery: Oh my God! This year, eight conservative states have already moved to restrict abortion rights. Hanft stepped out, introduced herself, and told Shelley that she was an adoption investigator sent by her birth mother. Thornton is the daughter of Norma McCorvey, the woman originally identified in court documents by the pseudonym Jane Roe. She threw it down and ran out of the room, Hanft later recalled. It was a game. I think she was taken advantage of by both sides, but I think she also took advantage of both sides, Thornton told ABC News. Two days later, Shelley and Ruth drove to Seattles Space Needle, to dine high above the city with Hanft and her associate, a mustachioed man named Reggie Fitz. Having previously changed the channel if there was ever a mention of Roe on TV, she began, instead, in the first years of the new millennium, to listen. Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe v. Wade is overturned, Republican appointed-JusticesClarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all voted to strike down Roe with Samuel Alito, Politico noted. She was ambivalent about adoption, too. The feminist lawyer Gloria Allred approached her at the Washington march and took her to Los Angeles for a run of talks, fundraisers, and interviews. My association with Roe started and ended because I was conceived, Thornton tells Prager, whom she began communicating with in 2012. Her first child was the only one of her three children who was a part of her mother's life. Im glad to know that my birth mother is alive, she was quoted in the story as saying, and that she loves mebut Im really not ready to see her. Despite McCorvey's desire to abort the fetus, Thornton was not aborted as a fetus, because the court proceedings in Roe v. Wade took too long. The person known as the Roe baby, referred to as such because of her birth mothers role in the landmark case protecting abortion, allowed herself to be publicly identified for the first time Thursday. (That interview was never published; the reporter kept his notes.) The Family Roe is scheduled for release on Tuesday. The excerpt from the book, The Family Roe by Joshua Prager, explores how Thornton came to discover she was the so-called Roe baby, her fraught relationship with McCorvey and her frustration with the anti-abortion movement using her existence to bolster its cause. Her name has not been publicly known until now: Shelley Lynn Thornton. Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, has come forward to reveal that she is the youngest daughter of McCorvey - the woman known as Jane Roe. Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, the woman whose conception led to the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case, has revealed herself publicly for the first time as the "Roe baby." Sept. 9, 2021, 7:26 AM. Shelley was the single mother's third pregnancy. Shelley was horrified. The pioneering heart operation that only takes an hour and doesn't leave a scar is performed on first Briton. We've received your submission. Though the decision has never been overturned, anti-abortionists have prompted hundreds of states laws since then narrowing the scope of the ruling. Then, as Hanft would later recount, she told Shelley that her mother was famousbut not a movie star or a rich person. Rather, her birth mother was connected to a national case that had changed law. There was much more to say, and Hanft asked Shelley if she would meet with her and her business partner. She told Shelley that they could meet in person. Her name was not yet widely known when, shortly before the march, three bullets pierced her home and car. That was fine by her. In the interview, McCorvey refered to herself as 'the Big Fish' in the eyes of evangelical leaders who were eager to have her publicly switch sides and take up their cause. Someone! Lavin told Shelley that she would do nothing without her consent. The sisters hugged at Melissas front door. She could make them still by eating. During a recent news interview, Shelley Lynn Thornton, the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey, who used the alias "Jane Roe" during the court proceedings, expressed her concerns about the. Having idly mused as a girl that her birth mother was a beautiful actor, she now knew that her birth mother was synonymous with abortion. In testimony for a Senate subcommittee in 1998, McCorvey said: 'I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name.'. Eight months had passed since the Enquirer story when, on a Sunday night in February 1990, there was a knock at the door of the home Shelley shared with her mother. She married at the age of 16, but separated shortly after while she was pregnant. Now that the leaked draft has been made final, the decision removes the federal right to abortion in America, leaving it up to elected officials in each state to decide whether or not women should have access to abortions. Genealogy for Shelley Lynn Thornton (McCorvey) family tree on Geni, with over 245 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. resigns from Google and says he regets Pictured: British grandfather and 'friend to everybody' who died while snorkelling during dream cruise Baby in India is born with a third ARM growing from its back in rare phenomenon. She already knew her two other daughters, but had only scant information about Thornton. The evidence was unassailable. Her second child, Jennifer, had been adopted by a couple in Dallas. Shelley also asked about her two half sisters, but Norma wanted to speak only about herself and Shelley, the two people in the family tied to Roe. I found and met with them in November 2012, and after I did so, I told Ruth. Mother and daughter had a cold reunion, Jonah Hanft told me. A decade later, in 1981, Norma briefly volunteered for the National Organization for Women in Dallas. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, "Identity of 'Roe baby' revealed after decades of secrecy", "Woman Whose Conception Sparked Roe v. Wade Case Breaks Silence: 'I'm Keeping a Secret but I Hate It', "Supreme Court abortion ruling live updates: Americans can get abortions in Canada: Trudeau", Supreme Court abortion ruling live updates: Americans can get abortions in Canada: Trudeau, Daughter of 'Jane Roe', the woman behind the landmark abortion case, comes to terms with her identity, Daughter of Jane Roe Has 'No Regrets' About Never Meeting Her Birth Mother After Landmark Abortion Case, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shelley_Lynn_Thornton&oldid=1143378474, This page was last edited on 7 March 2023, at 10:48. Hanft hugged Shelley. Ruth and Billy ran off, settling in the Dallas area. A Current Affair went away. She told me the next month, when we met for the first time on a rainy day in Tucson, Arizona, that she also wished to be unburdened of her secret. Hunter Biden claims he's paid Lunden Roberts $750k - $20,000 a month - in child MEGHAN MCCAIN: The Biden Family is a national disgrace! He had then handled the adoption of Normas child. EXCLUSIVE: High-ranking Met Police officer on 100,000-a-year who was found to be a regular user of Can the Keto diet help treat mental illness? The reporters told her who her biological motherwas then asked her if she was 'pro life or pro choice' whichshe said she didn't understand. This nineteen-year-old womans life was saved by that Texas law, a spokesman said. What a life, she jotted in a note that she later gave to Shelley, always looking over your shoulder. Shelley wrote out a list of things she might do to somehow cope with her burden: read the Roe ruling, take a DNA test, and meet Norma. She was baptized an evangelical Christianbefore network TV cameras by Benham, who was the leader of Operation Rescue, now known as Operation Save America. Life Shelley Lynn Thornton was born to Norma McCorvey on June 2, 1970, at the Dallas Osteopathic Hospital. And she wanted to become a secretary, because a secretary lived a steady life. Shelley felt a rush of joy: The woman who had let her go now wanted to know her. When Shelley was 5, she decided that her birth parents were most likely Elvis Presley and the actor Ann-Margret. ', McCorvey is pictured in 1998. You had to know cops. Jonah and his two brothers sometimes helped. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, she remained an ardent supporter of abortion rights and worked for a time at a Dallas women's clinic where abortions were performed. Im supposed to thank you for getting knocked up and then giving me away. Shelley went on: I told her I would never, ever thank her for not aborting me. Mother and daughter hung up their phones in anger. In 1988, Shelley graduated from Highline High and enrolled in secretarial school. 'She didn't deserve to meet me,' Thornton said. After years of keeping her secret and worrying that someone else would publicly share her story, she decided to share it herself. And I dont know when Ill ever be readyif ever. She added: In some ways, I cant forgive her I know now that she tried to have me aborted.. Texas is once again the epicenter of the abortion fight after the Supreme Court declined to block a restrictive state law banning abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy and allowing anyone in the U.S. to sue abortion providers or others who help women get the procedure after that time frame. She wasnt sorry, about giving me away or anything.. Schmidt ended the meeting and the pair left. I found her! From there, Hanft traced Shelleys path to a town in Washington State, not far from Seattle. The family moved, and then moved again and again. Shelley Lynn Thornton was publicly identified in an excerpt published from an upcoming book Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe in the 1973 court case, left, and her attorney Gloria Allred hold hands as they leave the Supreme Court on April 26, 1989. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. She graduated from Highline High School in 1988 . Thorntons identity as the daughter of Jane Roe, or Norma McCorvey, was revealed last month in an article in the Atlantic. Until such a day, I decided to look for her half sisters, Melissa and Jennifer. Shelley Lynn Thornton is the baby of Roe vs. Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey. When tenants in the complex moved out, he took her with him to rummage through whatever they had left behinddolls and books and things like that, Shelley recalled. Individual states have radically restricted the right to have an abortion; a new law in Texas bans abortion after about six weeks and puts enforcement in the hands of private citizens. Though she was still against abortion, she said she had reservations about the group's confrontational style. PRAGER: So her name is Shelley Lynn Thornton. I dont like not knowing what shes doing, Shelley explained. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, have protected access to abortion in state law. Also referred to by the pseudonym "Roe Baby", Thornton is the child at the center of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. I am done, she told Doug. In a television studio in Manhattan, the Today host Jane Pauley asked Norma why she had decided to look for her. Shelley was distraught. Its settled law in the nation., Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images. ', Thornton said she was unhappy with this description because she regarded pro-life as'a bunch of religious fanatics going around and doing protests. "[2] When Thornton asked McCorvey about her biological father, McCorvey said little: she told Thornton that his first name was Bill and she described what he looked like. She was seeking only the one associated with Roe. Thornton has since met her two half sisters, but she did not reunite with McCorvey before her death. Now I understand that it has nothing to do with me, she told ABC News. Thornton said last year she will never forgive McCorvey 'mostly because I feel that she could have handled things a lot better.'. It became apparent to me really quickly that the only reason why she wanted to reach out to me and find me was because she wanted to use me for publicity, Thornton said. [3], Thornton married her boyfriend, Doug, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in March 1991; they had a son later that year. If the court decides in favor of the state, Roe v. Wade will effectively be overturned. Im keeping a secret, but I hate it., From the December 2019 issue: Caitlin Flanagan on the dishonesty of the abortion debate, In time, I would come to know Shelley and her sisters well, along with their birth mother, Norma. We have lots of information about Shelly: religious views . It came to refer to the child as the Roe baby.. I had assumed, having never given the matter much thought, that the plaintiff who had won the legal right to have an abortion had in fact had one. Norma could be salty and fun, but she was also self-absorbed and dishonest, and she remained, until her death in 2017, at the age of 69, fundamentally unhappy. She was three days old when Billy drove her home. And yet for all its prominence, the person most profoundly connected to it has remained unknown: the child whose conception occasioned the lawsuit. She never did anything in her life to get that privilege back. It was her third pregnancy that catapulted her into the abortion rights struggle. When Shelley returned, she was shaking all over and crying.. However, at her request, her name was kept out of the ensuing article, which ran in 1989. Playgrounds were a source of distress: Empty, they reminded Norma of Roe; full, they reminded her of the children she had let go. The motion moved through the courts until it was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court in 2005. Norma had told her own story in two autobiographies, but she was an unreliable narrator. She gave her baby girl up for adoption, and now that baby is an adult. Because of state legislation preventing abortions unless the mother's life is at risk, she was unable to undergo the procedure in a safe and legal environment. Hanft died in 2007, but two of her sons spoke with me about her life and work, and she once talked about her search for the Roe baby in an interview. McCorvey told Shelley Thornton that she was placed for adoption because, Shelley recalled, "I knew I couldn't take care of you. [3] Thornton met her biological half-sisters, McCorvey's two other daughters, in March 2013. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided that the constitutional right to privacy applied to abortion. Hanft was thrilled to get the Enquirer assignment. Shelley Lynn Thornton (Baby Roe) Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) gave birth to Shelley Lynn Thornton in Dallas in 1970 - a year before the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade case was filed. Joe cast aside his own grandkid to protect his 'It's better than the noise and the dirt of London! As a teenager, she said her biggest concerns were "shoes and boys." She had no reason to think much beyond herself, until reporters at the National Enquirer revealed her birth identity to her. A week passed before Ruth explained that Billy would not return. Thornton's identity has been unknown to the public for more than 50 years. Billy, now a maintenance man for the apartment complex where the family lived in the city of Mesquite, Texas, was present for Shelley in a way he hadnt been for his other children. She struggled to see where her birth mother ended and she herself began. I had just begun my research when I reached out to Normas longtime partner, Connie. Ruth named the baby Shelley Lynn. Melissa Mills is one of them (pictured in 2021). The National Right to Life Committee seized upon the story. 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