The Catholic Weekly 31 May 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 13 31, May, 2020 FEATURE the phone with Fr Frank Pavone, Norma’s friend of 25 years. “I’ve got to make you promise that you’ve got to carry on this cause,” she said. That was her true “death- bed confession”. It’s odd that Sweeney didn’t consult many of the promi- nent people who kept up with Norma. There were no testi- monials from Flip Benham, Randall Terry, Fr Pavone, Janet Smith, Pat Pelletier or several others who came into Norma’s circle of friends in Texas after I moved away. Daniel Vinzant, one of Nor- ma’s closest friends, a former Baptist minister and pro-life promoter, saw her every week until she went into the nurs- ing home. He dismisses the documentary. “Never mind,” he told me, “The truth is that Miss Norma made a complete 180 fromher support of abortion, and she was from 1995 a firm believer in our Lord. I believe I know her heart and I for one will not let a soon-to-be-forgot video take away the good work and beautiful heart I witnessed first-hand for 22 years.” After viewing the docu- mentary, Fr Pavone issued a press release: “Whatever she may have said to this filmmak- er, and for whatever reason, can in no way to rewrite what we lived through together for decades.” He ought to have some insight into her dispo- sitions – he received her into the Catholic Church in 1998 (along with Fr Matt Robinson OP, who was her spiritual di- rector until his death in 2013) and presided at her funeral. None of these testimonies was included in the docu- mentary. Predictably, critics have seized upon Norma’s ap- parent turn-around as proof that the pro-life movement is a corrupt sham. “Have anti-abortion activists no shame?” asks Arwa Mahdawi inThe Guardian. “Like many right-wing operations, it turns out a huge part of the anti-choice movement was a scam the entire time,” tweeted Alexan- dria Ocasio-Cortez. Esquire talks about Norma’s “well–fi- nanced mock apostasy”. I was one of the early pro-lifers and I know that this is false. It began as a grass- roots movement with almost no funding at all. I helped to launch Right to Life North Carolina in 1973. It was just we three couples in a living room strewn with toys and children. There was no money at all in the 1970s and 80s. The general unpopular- ity of the pro-life movement until well after the turn of the millennium would have itself been a deterrent to anyone who was considering jumping ship. My own friendship with Norma was not so rich and long as other people’s, but it was a joy to me, and her cour- age impressed me. I remember the day I met her: a hot August morning in 1999 after a Sunday Mass at the Dominican Priory on the campus of the University of Dallas. Afterwards I made my way towards two women sitting side-by-side near the entrance. The smaller of the two wore a denim shift and had her red hair piled on top of her head; she looked at me with a slight smile and sad, blue eyes. I recognized her. She silently extended her hand and I burst into tears. That was when Norma asked me with amazement, “Why on earth are you cry- ing?” I answered, “Because, Nor- ma, you give so much hope. You are the walking embod- iment of the mercy and love of God.” Norma looked up at me steadily, with complete simplicity she replied, “I’m rough, honey. I’m just ‘folk’ like everybody else.” I just re- plied: “There’s hope for us all.” Later on, I interviewed her for a magazine that I edited and I invited her to speak at a conference for women in 2001. She came along with her partner, Connie Gonza- lez. (They lived in a lesbian relationship for many years, although it became platonic after her conversion.) I think that it is important to understand that Norma was a complex, bruised and wound- ed woman. Her own mother admitted that “I beat the f*** out of her.” She was heroic to survive all the trauma she suf- fered in her lifetime. She never had much mon- ey and just scraped by. That she survived with the help of donations from pro-life friends is hardly news. Joshua Praeger published a tell-all article in Vanity Fair in 2013 which revealed this and other details of her chaotic life. Significantly, one of her lesbian friends told Praeger about Norma: “A story would be told one way, and three days later it would be com- pletely different.” Inadequate and dishonest as AKA Jane Roe may be, it is bound to rekindle a long and vicious battle in the weeks ahead, with the pro-choice side reclaiming Norma as their long-lost poster girl and the pro-life movement claim- ing that Norma was true to the end. However, the transition of the pro-life movement from a grass-roots initiative in 1970s Roe v Wade was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court handed down in 1973 which fund that the Consti- tution of the United States enables a pregnant woman to choose to have an abortion. It polarised American politics, spurring abortion supporters and anti-abortion movements alike. It had a major effect legalising abortion globally. Decision shaped - and divided The truth is that Miss Norma made a complete 180 from her support of abortion, and she was from 1995 a firm believer in our Lord” Daniel Vinzant Norma McCorvey, left, celebrates with her lawyer, Gloria Allred, after leaving the US Supreme Court following a 1989 abortion case. PHOTO: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP Norma in the recently released documentary AKA Jane Roe . PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/COURTESY FX NETWORKS and 80s to a big-money oper- ation, a sub-category of con- servative politics, is equally a part of Norma’s complex life experience. She had little pa- tience for that. Rev Rob Schenck, a former pro-life activist, plays a prom- inent role in the documenta- ry. His comment on Norma’s relationship with the pro-life movement was perplexing and sad, but not out of char- acter for her: “I wondered, ‘Is she playing us?’ What I didn’t have the guts to say was, ‘be- cause I know damn well we’re playing her’.” For 30 years, Norma used a public forum to blast anyone who did not care about poor women in hard circumstanc- es and had no regard for the lives of babies. She experi- enced profound guilt at hav- ing emptied the playgrounds of children and she was tor- mented by nightmares and dark visions. The pro-choice contin- gent was embarrassed by her bluntness and her calling others out for insincerity. She was of no use to them after she signed the papers for Roe v. Wade. Norma was dropped with indifference by the privi- leged and professional wom- en who purported to be her friends. Her sarcastic contempt for them was obvious at a meet- ing of pro-choice leaders be- fore a Senate subcommittee. Norma, the last to introduce herself, said: “I’m Norma Mc- Corvey, the Jane Roe of Roe vs Wade.These other ladies here, they just wish they were.” After watching AKA Jane Roe, I’m afraid, you will be no closer to knowing the real Norma McCorvey. ENIGMA LIVES ON P15 This article first appeared at www.mercatornet.com