Plaintiff in landmark Roe v. Wade case dead

Norma McCorvey later became an opponent of abortion

Norma McCorvey (left) with attorney Gloria Allred in Washington in 1989.

Norma McCorvey, whose legal challenge under the pseudonym “Jane Roe” led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision that legalised abortion but who later became an outspoken opponent of the procedure, has died. She was 69.

Ms. McCorvey died on Saturday at an assisted living centre in Katy, Texas, said journalist Joshua Prager, who is working on a book about Ms. McCorvey and was with her and her family when she died.

Ms. McCorvey was 22, unmarried, unemployed and pregnant for the third time in 1969 when she sought to have an abortion in Texas, where the procedure was illegal except to save a woman’s life. The subsequent lawsuit, known as Roe v. Wade , led to the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that established abortion rights, though by that time, Ms. McCorvey had given birth and given her daughter up for adoption.

Decades later, Ms. McCorvey underwent a conversion, becoming an evangelical Christian and joining the anti-abortion movement. A short time later, she underwent another religious conversion and became a Roman Catholic.

After the court’s ruling, Ms. McCorvey lived quietly for several years before revealing herself as Jane Roe in the 1980s. Her 1994 autobiography, I Am Roe- My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice , included abortion-rights sentiments along with details about dysfunctional parents, reform school, drug abuse, alcoholism, an abusive husband, an attempted suicide and lesbianism.

But a year later, she was baptised before network TV cameras by Rev. Philip “Flip” Benham, leader of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, now known as Operation Save America.