According to a report from The Daily Beast, Norma McCorvey, widely known as “Jane Roe” from landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, allegedly made a “deathbed confession” back in 2017 that she did not actually have a pro-life conversion but lied about being pro-life for monetary gain.
The yet-to-be-released FX documentary titled “AKA Jane Roe” reportedly includes video of McCorvey making the stunning claims. The Daily Beast reports on the clipped exchange from the doc as follows:
“This is my deathbed confession,” she chuckles, sitting in a chair in her nursing home room, on oxygen. Sweeney asks McCorvey, “Did [the evangelicals] use you as a trophy?” “Of course,” she replies. “I was the Big Fish.” “Do you think you would say that you used them?” Sweeney responds. “Well,” says McCorvey, “I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they took me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say. That’s what I’d say.” She even gives an example of her scripted anti-abortion lines. “I’m a good actress,” she points out. “Of course, I’m not acting now.”
Some in the pro-life community who knew McCorvey personally, however, are already pushing back on the doc.
“While its clear abortion activists exploited a frail and broken McCorvey with a last-minute interview to further their agenda, what’s also very clear to everyone who personally knew Norma over the years is that she was totally and genuinely pro-life,” argued LifeNews’ Steven Ertelt.
“In private email exchanges to this author over the years prior to her death, she never vacillated from her pro-life views and repeatedly thanked LifeNews for standing up for unborn babies,” he said.
Father Frank Pavone was also quick to reject the notion that McCorvey was lying about being pro-life.
“So #abortion supporters are claiming Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe v Wade, wasn’t sincere in her conversion,” Father Pavone posted to Twitter, Tuesday afternoon. “She was[.] I was her spiritual guide for 22 years, received her into the #Catholic Church, kept regular contact, spoke w her the day she died, & conducted her funeral.”
So #abortion supporters are claiming Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe v Wade, wasn't sincere in her conversion.
She was
I was her spiritual guide for 22 years, received her into the #Catholic Church, kept regular contact, spoke w her the day she died, & conducted her funeral.— Fr. Frank Pavone 🇺🇸 (Text LIFE to 88022) (@frfrankpavone) May 19, 2020
“One would think that any normal or honest person who wants to understand the journey of Norma McCorvey would talk with those who journeyed with her,” the priest further explained to LifeNews. “I knew her and was one of her key spiritual guides for 22 years, starting in 1995 with her baptism, right through the conversation we had on the day she died. Yes, she not only rejected abortion, but she became a new creation in Christ. I received her into the Catholic Church and rejoiced together with her as she discovered day by day the joy of prayer, and in her final years made rosaries by hand to help others experience that same joy. Her desire to protect children in the womb was no act.”
“I was privileged to lead and preach at her funeral. I knew her struggles and her pain. She didn’t just have positions; she had deep wounds because of her involvement with Roe vs. Wade, and I guided her through the healing of those wounds, in the quiet hours of struggle that nobody saw or heard about,” he continued. “Those are things you don’t fake.”
“There have always been people who have tried to re-shape her story, or get her to reshape it,” Father Pavone added. “She resented that and would resent it today. Norma was not somebody you could come to know in a snapshot, in an interview, or even in years of interviews. I’ll have a lot more to say about this once I see the documentary.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, also pushed back against the FX documentary.
“Jane Roe (Norma McCorvey) always spoke [with] passion about her pro-life convictions, which represented a huge & public shift from how she had been seen for so long,” wrote Hawkins on social media. “The woman that I personally knew lived a painful & complicated life, but spoke directly about how she felt about it.”
“And I also don’t believe that [FX Docs] is a good actor,” she added, “when you consider that earlier this year, they went after the iconic Phyllis Schlafly. Tearing down pro-life champions won’t work for those of us who have had the privilege of knowing the real people behind the headlines.”
And I also don't believe that @fxdocs is a good actor, when you consider that earlier this year, they went after the iconic Phyllis Schlafly.
Tearing down pro-life champions won't work for those of us who have had the privilege of knowing the real people behind the headlines.
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) May 19, 2020
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