Norma McCorvey

American newsmaker, also known by the pseudonym "Jane Roe", she was the plaintiff in the landmark American legal case Roe v. Wade in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that individual state laws banning abortion were unconstitutional.

Later in her life, McCorvey became a Protestant Christian, and thereafter a Roman Catholic, and took part in the anti-abortion movement. McCorvey stated then that her involvement in Roe was "the biggest mistake of [her] life." During an interview shortly before her death, in what McCorvey referred to as her "deathbed confession", she said she had been paid to speak against abortion, and added that she continued to have abortion-rights beliefs.

McCorvey was raised at her family's residence in Lettsworth in Pointe Coupee Parish. Later in her childhood, the family moved to Houston, Texas. McCorvey's father, Olin Nelson, a TV repairman, left the family when she was 13 years old, and her parents subsequently divorced. She and her older brother were raised by their mother, Mary (née Gautreaux), a violent alcoholic.

In her teens, while working at a restaurant, Norma met Woody McCorvey (born 1940), and she married him at the age of 16 in 1963. She later left him after he allegedly assaulted her. She moved in with her mother and gave birth to her first child, Melissa, in 1965. After Melissa's birth, McCorvey developed a severe drinking and drug problem. Soon after, she began identifying as a lesbian.

One day, McCorvey's mother told her to sign what were presented as insurance papers, and she did so without reading them. However, the papers she had signed were adoption papers, giving her mother custody of Melissa, and McCorvey was then kicked out of the house. Her mother disputed that version of the events, and said that McCorvey had agreed to the adoption. The following year, McCorvey again became pregnant and gave birth to a baby, Jennifer, who was placed for adoption.