Anti-abortion convert lobbies MPs

-11/3/04

The woman whose legal case led to the legalisation of abortion in the US is lobbying MPs – calling for te

Anti-abortion convert lobbies MPs

-11/3/04

The woman whose legal case led to the legalisation of abortion in the US is lobbying MPs – calling for terminations to be banned.

Norma McCorvey, who converted to catholicism, addressed the all party pro-life group, made up of MPs and Peers in Parliament.

Under the pseudonym Jane Roe she brought one of the most famous cases to come before the US supreme court in the last 50 years.

However, she has now changed her mind, and wants the ruling over-turned.

The 1973 ruling in the Roe v Wade case resulted in the decision that abortion was permitted under the American constitution.

It has since been a rallying point for those who support a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion – and a target for those who take the opposite view, under the banner of pro-life.

Ms McCorvey now argues that the judgement in her case was wrong.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she first started having doubts at a pro-abortion rally in the late 1980s in California.

“A woman came up to me, and she said, ‘I would like to thank you for my abortions’. I said how many have you had, and she said: ‘Oh, eight or nine, who keeps count any more?’

“This one particular instance told me that this woman was using abortion as a means of birth control. You read about, you hear about it, you never think you are going to sitting down with it, and listening to it talk.”

Ms McCorvey has converted to Catholicism, and now says that she adheres to the fundamental anti-abortion views put forward by Pope John-Paul II.

She is now campaigning for the US Supreme Court to set aside the original ruling.

A first attempt failed, through a court in Dallas failed, she is now going to an appeal court.

Her lawyer Alan Parker said new scientific evidence had come to light since 1973, including evidence that abortion hurts women. In addition, many US states had measures in place to care for children if a mother could not cope.

“I believe the majority of Americans want much tighter restrictions on abortion.”

A spokesperson for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the UK’s biggest provider of abortion services, told BBC News Online: “Ms McCorvey has the right to change her mind, but that does not give her the right to try to stop other women from making their own minds up.”

Anti-abortion convert lobbies MPs

-11/3/04

The woman whose legal case led to the legalisation of abortion in the US is lobbying MPs – calling for terminations to be banned.

Norma McCorvey, who converted to catholicism, addressed the all party pro-life group, made up of MPs and Peers in Parliament.

Under the pseudonym Jane Roe she brought one of the most famous cases to come before the US supreme court in the last 50 years.

However, she has now changed her mind, and wants the ruling over-turned.

The 1973 ruling in the Roe v Wade case resulted in the decision that abortion was permitted under the American constitution.

It has since been a rallying point for those who support a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion – and a target for those who take the opposite view, under the banner of pro-life.

Ms McCorvey now argues that the judgement in her case was wrong.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she first started having doubts at a pro-abortion rally in the late 1980s in California.

“A woman came up to me, and she said, ‘I would like to thank you for my abortions’. I said how many have you had, and she said: ‘Oh, eight or nine, who keeps count any more?’

“This one particular instance told me that this woman was using abortion as a means of birth control. You read about, you hear about it, you never think you are going to sitting down with it, and listening to it talk.”

Ms McCorvey has converted to Catholicism, and now says that she adheres to the fundamental anti-abortion views put forward by Pope John-Paul II.

She is now campaigning for the US Supreme Court to set aside the original ruling.

A first attempt failed, through a court in Dallas failed, she is now going to an appeal court.

Her lawyer Alan Parker said new scientific evidence had come to light since 1973, including evidence that abortion hurts women. In addition, many US states had measures in place to care for children if a mother could not cope.

“I believe the majority of Americans want much tighter restrictions on abortion.”

A spokesperson for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the UK’s biggest provider of abortion services, told BBC News Online: “Ms McCorvey has the right to change her mind, but that does not give her the right to try to stop other women from making their own minds up.”