Baby at centre of Roe v Wade abortion case reveals identity after 50 years

‘I told my biological mother that I would never, ever thank her for not aborting me’

THE child at the centre of America’s “Roe v Wade” abortion case has revealed her identity after half a century.

Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, is a mother of three living in Arizona.

In 1970, Norma Mccorvey, a 22-yearold waitress from Dallas, Texas, sued Henry Wade, the local district attorney, over the state’s abortion law. Ms Mccorvey was referred to in the case by the pseudonym Jane Roe.

The case went to the Supreme Court, which delivered its ruling legalising abortion nationally in 1973.

By that time, Ms Mccorvey had given birth to a child, now revealed to be Ms Thornton, and put her up for adoption.

Ms Thornton disclosed her identity in an forthcoming book by Joshua Prager called The Family Roe: An American Story, an extract of which was published in The Atlantic magazine. She had been adopted by Ruth Schmidt and her partner, Billy Thornton. Ms Thornton described how she only learnt of her connection to “Roe v Wade” when she was tracked down as a teenager by the National Enquirer, when she was living near Seattle. After being told, she began “shaking all over and crying”. The tabloid did not publish her name.

She went on to have telephone conversations with her biological mother, Ms Mccorvey, but did not meet her. In 1994, they had an angry exchange after Ms Mccorvey suggested that she should be grateful. Ms Thornton said: “I was like, ‘What?! I’m supposed to thank you for getting knocked up… and then giving me away?’ I told her I would never, ever thank her for not aborting me.” Ms Mccorvey died in 2017.

Of her own views on abortion, Ms Thornton said: “I guess I don’t understand why it’s a government concern.” She revealed her identity because she “hated” keeping it a secret. The announcement came after Texas passed a law banning abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity in the unborn baby, usually at about six weeks.

The Justice Department has sued Texas, arguing that the law was enacted “in open defiance of the Constitution”.