Two days later, Shelley and Ruth drove to Seattles Space Needle, to dine high above the city with Hanft and her associate, a mustachioed man named Reggie Fitz. You had to know cops. Jonah and his two brothers sometimes helped. On June 2, 1970, 37 girls had been born in Dallas County; only one of them had been placed for adoption. She helped him scissor through reams of construction paper and cooled his every bowl of Campbells chicken soup with two ice cubes. Billy had fathered six children with four women (in that neighborhood, he told me). She was ambivalent about adoption, too. It was so not Texas, Shelley said; the rain and the people left her cold. 'They'd asked me if I'd ever heard of her before and I said no. The story quoted Hanft. [3], Thornton married her boyfriend, Doug, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in March 1991; they had a son later that year. Thats what Id say.'. Published: 15:21 BST, 24 June 2022 | Updated: 16:20 BST, 24 June 2022, Norma McCorvey, known as 'Jane Roe', is pictured in January 1983. It was a game. We both like the same colors, we both like to do the same crafts and things like that. I'm not the one who createdthis movement. However, pro-lifers contended it was tantamount to murder and that every life, no matter how it was conceived, is precious. Hanft normally telephoned the adoptees she found. Shelley was now seeing a man from Albuquerque named Doug. Twenty-six states are likely to ban it if Roe v. Wade is formally overturned, essentially outlawing abortion in more than half of the country. Ruth loved being a motherplaying the tooth fairy, outfitting Shelley in dresses, putting her hair into pigtails. When tenants in the complex moved out, he took her with him to rummage through whatever they had left behinddolls and books and things like that, Shelley recalled. McCorvey became a leading, outspoken pro-abortion voice in American discourse, even working at a women's clinic where abortions were performed. I am done, she told Doug. My association with Roe started and ended because I was conceived," Thornton is quoted saying in the excerpt. Shelley Lynn Thornton was two-and-a-half years old when the Roe v. Wade ruling was issued. Though she was still against abortion, she said she had reservations about the group's confrontational style. She had given birth in high school to a daughter whom she had placed for adoption, and whom she later looked for and found. Hanft paid them to scan microfiche birth records for the asterisks that might denote an adoption. But she did an about-face and later spoke out on behalf of anti-abortion campaignersafter befriending The Rev. She said she couldnt afford to travel to one of the handful of states where it would have been legal. Being born-again did not give her peace; pro-life leaders demanded that she publicly renounce her homosexuality (which she did, at great personal cost). Shelley Lynn Thornton - Wikipedia Identity of 'Roe baby' revealed after decades of secrecy It now seemed to her that abortion law ought to be free of the influences of religion and politics. In 2005, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by McCorvey to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. The more people Shelley knew, the more she worried that one of them might learn of her connection to Roe. The child was not identified but was said to be pro-life and living in Washington State. McCluskey had introduced Norma to the attorney who initially filed the Roe lawsuit and who had been seeking a plaintiff. As a teenager, she said her biggest concerns were "shoes and boys." She had no reason to think much beyond herself, until reporters at the National Enquirer revealed her birth identity to her. Texas is once again the epicenter of the abortion fight after the Supreme Court declined to block a restrictive state law banning abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy and allowing anyone in the U.S. to sue abortion providers or others who help women get the procedure after that time frame. I want her to experience this joythe good that it brings, she told me. As a teenager, she said her biggest concerns were "shoes and boys." Thereafter, slowly, she became an activistworking at first with pro-choice groups and then, after becoming a born-again Christian in 1995, with pro-life groups. Ruth in particular, Shelley would recall, felt it was important that she know she had been chosen. But even the chosen wonder about their roots. Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, the woman whose conception led to the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case, has revealed herself publicly for the first time as the "Roe baby." Sept. 9, 2021, 7:26 AM. "Norma's personal life was complex. At Normas urging, her own mother, Mary, had adopted the girl (though Norma later claimed that Mary had kidnapped her). Her birth mother's lawsuit became the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that secured the right for women to legally have an abortion across the country, even though she never went through with the procedure. She decided to have the child, but didn't understand why the abortion decision should be "a government concern. She sued the Dallas attorney general Henry Wade over a Texas law that made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother's life was in danger. They explained that the tabloid had recently found the child Roseanne Barr had relinquished for adoption as a teenager, and that the pair had reunited. I could rock a pair of Jordache, she said. It was like, Oh God! Shelley said. McCorvey was 22 years old in 1970, unmarried and pregnant in Texas, where abortion was illegal. I found her! From there, Hanft traced Shelleys path to a town in Washington State, not far from Seattle. I did not call Shelley. I found and met with them in November 2012, and after I did so, I told Ruth. She charged clients $1,500 for a typical search, twice that if there was little information to go on. The National Right to Life Committee seized upon the story. She told Shelley that shed given her up because, Shelley recalled, I knew I couldnt take care of you. She also told Shelley that she had wondered about her always. Shelley listened to Normas words and her smokers voice. The Supreme Court, now dominated by conservative justices, has also agreed to hear a case out of Mississippi concerning pre-viability bans on abortion. Official records yielded an adoptive name. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Thornton's reaction was "What! She and Doug had made plans to marry, and Shelley was due to deliver two months after the wedding date. ', Shelley Thorton was adopted as a baby and raised by Ruth and Billy Thornton, a married couple. She began to Google Norma too. Shelley felt a rush of joy: The woman who had let her go now wanted to know her. In a statement to ABC News, Thornton indicated that she worries the Dobbs ruling could be an omen for future unrest. She died in 2017 without ever meeting Shelley in person. Shelley Lynn Thornton: What we know about the Roe v. Wade Baby Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey and spoke on the record for the first time in 2021. Shelley Lynn Thornton is seen here during an exclusive interview with ABC News. In early 1991, Shelley found herself pregnant. Still, abortion was not part of who I was," which is why she had the baby. 'I can deal with that. British MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo 'was secretly battling bowel cancer' before he was found dead in a Top conservative think tank takes the Biden administration to court for Prince Harry's immigration records - Police hunt for Brixton killer after woman in her 30s is stabbed to death in broad daylight near O2 Academy. To be certain that he never came calling, Ruth moved with Shelley 2,000 miles northwest, to the city of Burien, outside Seattle, where Ruths sister lived with her husband. you know, the pro-life . The motion moved through the courts until it was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court in 2005. The child whose conception was the genesis of the lawsuit that became Roe v. Wade is now a 51-year-old woman ready to tell her story. Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, has come forward to reveal that she is the youngest daughter of McCorvey - the woman known as Jane Roe Thornton was the only child of her adopted parents Ruth Schmidt. McCluskey had told Ruth and Billy that Shelley had two half sisters. Norma wanted the very thing that Shelley did nota public outing in the pages of a national tabloid. We have lots of information about Shelly: religious views . Her identity was only made public in September by The Atlantic. The evidence was unassailable. The state's law banning it after six weeks has already been allowed to go into effect by the Supreme Court due to its unusual civil enforcement structure. In fact, it preceded her birth. At three days old, she was adopted by then-engaged Texas residents, Ruth Schmidt and Billy Thornton. She said that Shelley would be in touch if she wished to talk. In 1988, Shelley graduated from Highline High and enrolled in secretarial school. We already had adopted one of her children, the mother, Donna Kebabjian, recalled in a conversation years later. When Shelley was 5, she decided that her birth parents were most likely Elvis Presley and the actor Ann-Margret. But she remained wary of her birth mother, mindful that it was the prospect of publicity that had led Norma to seek her out. Fitz loved his work, and he was about to land a major scoop. ( Tracy Nguyen for The Atlantic) Politics The. She nearly met her birth mother in 1994; according to Thornton, McCorvey told her on the phone that she should have thanked her for not having an abortion. Thornton has been able to connect with one of her two older biological half-sisters whom McCorvey had also given up for adoption, Jennifer Ferguson. Only the following January did it offer its historic seven-to-two decision - overturning the Texas laws and setting a legal precedent that has had ramifications in all 50 states. Identity of 'Roe baby' revealed after decades of secrecy Texas mother who won the case but became opponent of abortion rights The three met at a pizza parlor when Norma was eight weeks pregnant. The trio of complaints - from a woman who wanted an abortion, a doctor who wanted to perform them and a non-pregnant woman who wanted the right if the need arose - ultimately reached the nation's top court. Norma had come to call Roe my law. And, in time, Shelley too became almost possessive of Roe; it was her conception, after all, that had given rise to it. In testimony for a Senate subcommittee in 1998, McCorvey said: 'I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name.'. I had just begun my research when I reached out to Normas longtime partner, Connie. This page is not available in other languages. I am sick and tired of having to fight over abortion rights, New York Gov. Hanft and Fitz said that a DNA test could be arranged. And from their first date, at a Taco Bell, Shelley found that she could be open with him. She grew up not knowing that she was the fetus in the Roe case until her birth mother appeared on the Today show in 1989 and talked about her desire to meet her daughter. When Norma McCorvey became pregnant with her third child, Henry McCluskey turned to the couple raising her second. In the 1990s, she crossed the picket line and joined the anti-abortion side. All I wanted to do, she said, was hang out with my friends, date cute boys, and go shopping for shoes. Now, suddenly, 10 days before her 19th birthday, she was the Roe baby. The court heard arguments twice, and then waited until after Republican president Richard Nixon's re-election, in November 1972. McCorvey began searching for Thornton in 1989, appearing on the "TODAY" show expressing her hope to find her third child. It was a game. Thornton appeared on Good Morning America for her first ever TV interview. 'Roe Baby' At Center Of Landmark Abortion Case Is Identified For 1st She. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, have protected access to abortion in state law. Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey and spoke on the record for the first time in 2021. She said she wished she had been 'upfront' about craving media attention over a real relationship with her. Lavin wrote that Shelley was of American historyboth a part of a great decision for women and the truest example of what the right to life can mean. Her desire to tell Shelleys story represented, she wrote, an obligation to our gender. She signed off with an invitation to call her at Seattles Stouffer Madison Hotel. She knew only, she explained, that she wanted to one day find a partner who would stay with her always. However, abortion rights have been under threat in recent months as Republican-led states move to tighten rules - with some seeking to ban all abortions after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant - andhave passed various abortion restrictions in defiance of the Roe precedent in recent years. Now I understand that it has nothing to do with me, she told ABC News. When the Roe case was decided, in 1973, the adoptive parents were oblivious of its connection to their daughter, now 2 and a half, a toddler partial to spaghetti and pork chops and Cheez Whiz casserole. The Roe Baby Identified?! : prolife Shelley had long considered abortion wrong, but her connection to Roe had led her to reexamine the issue. In her book, she recounted stealing money at the age of 10 from the gas station where she worked afternoons and weekends and running away to Oklahoma City before being returned home by police. I later arranged to buy the papers from Norma, and they are now in a library at Harvard. McCorvey's pregnancy led to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that found a constitutional right to abortion.. "Norma was pro-choice, and it seemed to Shelley that to have an abortion would render her no different than Norma," Prager wrote. In the event that she didnt already know that Norma McCorvey was her birth mother, a phone call could have upended her life. Billy Thornton was a lapsed Baptist from small-town Texastall and slim with tar-black hair and, as he put it, a deadbeat, thin, narrow mustache that had helped him buy alcohol since he was 15. Shelley then began to look online for her pseudonymous self, to learn what was being written about the Roe baby. The pro-life community saw that unknown baby as a symbol. I think she was taken advantage of by both sides, but I think she also took advantage of both sides, Thornton told ABC News. 'She never expressed genuine feeling for me or genuine remorse for doing the things that she did, saying the things that she did over and over and over again. Thorntons identity as the daughter of Jane Roe, or Norma McCorvey, was revealed last month in an article in the Atlantic. Her identity was not publicly known until 2021. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Thornton's adoptive mother, Ruth Schmidt, told her when she was young that she had been adopted, and Thornton said she often yearned to know about her biological parents. She gave a second child up for adoption, but when she got pregnant a third time she decided to have an abortion. Every time, she declined. Facebook gives people the power to. She confirmed that the adoption had been arranged by McCluskey. Shelley asked why. Already getting in the party mood! 'My whole thinking is that, "oh God everybody is going to hateme because everyone is going to blame me for abortion being legal,"' she said. That was fine by her. McCorvey had written two autobiographies in her lifetime - one about pro-abortion and later about her change in stance. Its settled law in the nation., Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images. Shelley Lynn Thornton was born to Norma McCorvey on June 2, 1970, at the Dallas Osteopathic Hospital. [3] She reflected, "When someone's pregnant with a baby, and they don't want that baby, that person develops knowing they're not wanted. Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. The case was filed in 1971 by Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old living in Texaswho was unmarried and seeking a termination of her unwanted pregnancy.