HISTORY IN THE MAKING -
"ROE" FILES MOTION TO RE-OPEN ROE V. WADE,
THE LANDMARK CASE LEGALIZING ABORTION
DALLAS, June 17, 2003 - Norma McCorvey, the former "Roe" of Roe v.
Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion, is filing an
historic motion today to re-open her case and request that it be overturned.
The filing is based on changes in law and factual conditions since the high
court handed down its decision 30 years ago.
As a party to the original litigation, Norma McCorvey may petition the
court to re-open the original case based on changes in factual conditions
and/or changes in law that make the prior decision "no longer just," said
Allan E. Parker, Jr., lead attorney for the Texas-based Justice Foundation.
The motion will be filed and a news conference held at 10 a.m. Tuesday
at the Ferris Plaza Park on the corner of Houston and Record Streets - just
blocks away from the Earl Cabell Federal Building, where the motion will be
filed. The motion attacks the judgment that was first entered exactly 33
years ago today by the Dallas Federal Court. McCorvey is asking that the
judgment in the original Roe case be set aside.
"I long for the day that justice will be done and the burden from all
of these deaths will be removed from my shoulders," McCorvey said. "I want
to do everything in my power to help women and their children. The issue is
justice for women, justice for the unborn, and justice for what is right."
Using Rule 60, there are three major arguments to re-open and overturn
the case on the basis of changed facts and law:
1.. Norma McCorvey, and more than 1,000 women who have actually had
abortions, have signed affidavits that attest to the devastating emotional,
physical, and psychological trauma of abortion. These affidavits are the
largest body of sworn evidence in the world on the negative effects of
abortion on women. It is more than a thousand times more evidence from women
than the Court heard in Roe.
2.. The unanswered question in Roe's former case, "when does human
life begin?" was treated by the Court as a philosophical question when the
case was first heard in 1973. Since then, an explosion of scientific
evidence on human life conclusively answers the question that life begins at
conception.
3.. The state of Texas in 1999 enacted a law in which it agreed to
provide for any woman's unwanted child from the child's birth to 18 years of
age with no questions asked. Legally, because the state has agreed to take
responsibility for all unwanted children, women should no longer be forced
to dispose of "unwanted" children by ending a human life. Forty states have
similar Baby Moses laws.
" The result of granting the motion would be to set aside and annul
Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, its companion case. This would return the
issue of protecting women and children to the people with Baby Moses laws
serving as a safety net", Mr. Parker said.
Norma McCorvey will be joined at the press conference by her lead
attorney, Mr. Parker, by co-counsel Harold Cassidy of New Jersey, and by
post-abortive women, who will provide testimony about how abortion has
harmed them. These women, many of whom are witnesses in the Rule 60 Motion,
want others to know how abortion has negatively impacted women's lives,
including their physical and emotional health.
The San Antonio, Texas-based Justice Foundation will represent Norma
McCorvey in the case. To view the press kit, legal documents, scientific
research and some of the more than 1,000 affidavits, please visit
www.operationoutcry.org.
The following are excerpts from the more than 1,000 women who have
filed sworn affidavits as part of this Rule 60 court challenge. A copy of
the entire record is available in Dallas federal court. (Cities and dates
are for abortion, not current residence).
o "If I imagine what hell is then I say that is how my life was
before I found counseling and healing. I became an alcoholic, lost my will
to live, hated life in general." Lisa. Eugene, OR, June 1976, 1980 and 1980.
o "It has affected me emotionally. I was unable to bond with anyone.
I have suffered depression. It caused years of self-destructive behavior."
Paula. Cleveland, OH, July 1978.
o "Inability to form deep relationships, guilt, anxiety attacks. For
a long time inability to hold or be near babies." Shirley. Los Angeles, CA,
1982; and, Norway, 1970.
o "I have had many medical problems that I attribute to having the
abortion including pre-term pregnancies, abnormal paps, and abnormal
periods." Susan. Fort Worth, TX, March, 1977.
o "Emotionally I feel rejected by all. I feel alone." Grace.
Jacksonville, NC, 1976.
o "Years of mood swings, eating disorders, promiscuity, low
self-esteem and relationship with my other children." Reatha. Baltimore, MD,
November 1979.
o "Daily sorry and regret over death of my children caused by my own
actions." Beverly. Atlanta, GA, 1974 and 1977.
o "Severe depression, especially in January, knowing my child would
be another year older." Wendy. Howell, NJ, 1985.
o "Ten years after the abortion I almost had a nervous breakdown.
Have suffered emotionally for twenty-five years." D.E., Atlanta, GA, August
1975.
o "I felt empty inside for quite some time. I also began the spiral
of compulsive eating which has led to extreme obesity." A.D.C.H., San
Antonio, TX, February 22, 1984.
o "I went from being on the Dean's List in college to getting F's,
incompletes, and withdraws. I attempted suicide. I was depressed. The guilt
was overwhelming." H.A.K. Knoxville, TN, May 12, 1984.
o "I have been suicidal, depressed, had extreme anxiety, had
nightmares, suffered from grief and self destructive behaviors." Candice.
San Diego County, California, March, 1996.
o "Abortion kills. Not only the child, but the human spirit. The
mother and father are victims as well. I tried to take my own life because
of the guilt and remorse. I felt I was a walking tomb." Sheila Lynn.
Tallahassee, FL, June 7, 1985.
o "Listen to those voices of those who have experienced the physical
and emotional consequences. A whole segment of society - men and women - are
suffering because they did what was wrong even though it was legal."
Shirley. Los Angeles, CA, 1982; and, Norway, 1970.
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