No More Exploiting of Jane Roe : Pro-abortion forces condescended to Norma McCorvey. Pro-lifers should allow her to evolve at her own pace.

I felt strange watching the face on TV that had for too many years been the symbol of everything I vehemently opposed. It was the face of legalized abortion. The face of tragedy. The face of Norma McCorvey. Through the years I had seen her on various news programs, as the “Jane Roe” of Roe vs. Wade, which in one broad sweep had overturned all protective laws for unborn humans and opened the floodgates of destruction through the ninth month of pregnancy. It was McCorvey who symbolically stood before the Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 1973, and through her legal representative told a fabricated rape story that resulted in the most liberal abortion declaration, except for China’s, in the world. McCorvey was only 21 and a divorced mother when the pro-abortion forces began using her in the case that would change history four years later. From the beginning, McCorvey told ABC’s Ted Koppel last week, the pro-abortion activists lied to her. They refused to tell her about illegal clinics because “they needed me pregnant to go forward with their test case.” For the next 22 years, McCorvey was the symbol of abortion on demand.

It was also during the early 1970s that, as a sophomore in college, I made the disastrous decision to have my own unborn child aborted. It would be another six years before I changed sides. During the 1980s, as a spokeswoman for pro-life in California, I continually sat opposite McCorvey’s cronies at universities and conferences and on television and radio shows. Sickened by my own decision, I saw McCorvey as my enemy. Once, we were in the same small workshop offered by a state-sponsored conference on women. During the entire hour, neither McCorvey nor the other women there spoke to me. Instead, they stared, whispered, pointed and giggled, making faces and comments like, “Not all the women in this room are pro-women and some here today are complete misogynists.” I sat (uncharacteristically) quietly, observing and concluding that everything about what I had heard was the lesbian-run women’s movement was true. I had been told that they thought their poster child was stupid--”not a Vassar type,” to use McCorvey’s own words. They propped her up before the cameras and presented her as a poor woman who needed but was denied an abortion; code words for “white trash, should not reproduce.” McCorvey at all times was escorted by pro-abortion spokespersons. She was used at fund-raisers but never allowed in the inner circle. She was the conduit but never their equal. Burned-out, used-up, exploited and exhausted at 47, McCorvey finally turned to the only true place of peace, God.

Last week, the former alcoholic and drug user was baptized, born again, pro-life and working for Operation Rescue. It would have been less surprising for me to hear that gay Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank had gone straight and was engaged to Ethel Kennedy.

Now that McCorvey has reached out a fragile hand to the pro-life community, we must be wise and gentle with our new member. Her journey has just begun and while the temptation to have her stay in the public eye is natural, she should be allowed to retreat into privacy, draw strength from God, bask quietly in her newfound peace and enjoy the discovery of truth. The pro-life movement must become a sanctuary to salve her wounds, mend her abused spirit and do nothing but love and accept her, for through the years she has been greatly used and scarred.

For the time being, ask no questions, expect no answers, require no absolutes and understand her hesitations. Be supportive when the women’s movement tries to demonize her and protect her from some pro-lifers who will naturally be skeptical. While her past will always symbolize the cruelty of the pro-abortion mentality, her future can become an example of the pro-life philosophy.

From an old adversary: Welcome, Norma. It’s good to have you aboard.