She set everything else aside and worked in secrecy. The news was not all bad: The Enquirer would withhold Shelleys name. She had casual affairs with men, and one brief marriage at age 16. Two days earlier, Shelley had been a typical teenager on the brink of another summer. The excerpt from the book, The Family Roe by Joshua Prager, explores how Thornton came to discover she was the so-called Roe baby, her fraught relationship with McCorvey and her frustration with the anti-abortion movement using her existence to bolster its cause. 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. My darling, she began a letter to Shelley, be re-assured that Ms. Gloria Allred has sent a letter to the Nat. Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey and spoke on the record for the first time in 2021. Her identity was not publicly known until 2021. "Norma's personal life was complex. ', McCorvey is pictured in 1998. The notion of finally laying claim to Norma was empowering. ", To Thornton, pro-life represented a bunch of religious fanatics going around and doing protests.. Thornton, who is now a mother of three living in Arizona, nearly met McCorvey in person in 1994 before an angry phone conversation derailed the meeting. The bit of the movie she watched had left her with the thought that Jane Roe was indecent. 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. She told me the next month, when we met for the first time on a rainy day in Tucson, Arizona, that she also wished to be unburdened of her secret. Shelley Lynn Thornton (McCorvey) - Genealogy The only thing I knew about being pro-life or pro-choice or even Roe v. Wade, Shelley recalled, was that this person had made it okay for people to go out and be promiscuous., Still, Shelley struggled to grasp what exactly Hanft was saying. In 1960, at the age of 17, she married a military man from her hometown, and the couple moved to an Air Force base in Texas. Toby Hanft knew what it was to let go of a child. HuffPost's top politics stories, straight to your inbox. He suggested that Hanft may have secretly recorded her; Shelley, he said, should trust no one. But in 2009, five years after Connie had a stroke, Norma left her. The Atlantics excerpt comes as abortion bans dominate the news. (A woman had recently accused Norma of shortchanging her in a marijuana sale.) 'A lot of people didn't know I existed,' she said, adding she fears the world blames her for abortion being legal. Back home, Shelley wondered if talking to Norma might ease the situation or even make the tabloid go away. She especially welcomed the prospect of coming together with her half sisters. And yet for all its prominence, the person most profoundly connected to it has remained unknown: the child whose conception occasioned the lawsuit. I was just a pawn, and I wasnt going to let her do it, she said. Shelley Lynn Thornton (born June 2, 1970) is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey. [4], In a 2021 interview, Thornton stated that she was not pro-choice or pro-life. Norma told her little except his first nameBilland what he looked like. EXCLUSIVE: High-ranking Met Police officer on 100,000-a-year who was found to be a regular user of Can the Keto diet help treat mental illness? She began to look hard and long at every girl in every park. Prager writes: From Shelleys perspective, it was clear that if she, the Roe baby, could be said to represent anything, it was not the sanctity of life but the difficulty of being born unwanted.. 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. Shelley had replied, she recalled, that she hoped Norma and Connie would be discreet in front of her son: How am I going to explain to a 3-year-old that not only is this person your grandmother, but she is kissing another woman? Norma yelled at her, and then said that Shelley should thank her. Baby Whose Conception Inspired Roe V Wade Finally Identified - Insider A week passed before Ruth explained that Billy would not return. 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). Every time she got close to someone, Shelley found herself thinking, Yeah, were really great friends, but you dont have a clue who I am. Lavin told Shelley that she would do nothing without her consent. Other names that Shelly uses includes Shelly Lynn Rossi, Shelly L Rossi, Shelly L Thornton, She Thornton and Shelly Rossi. Supreme Court abortion ruling updates: Americans can get abortions in Shelley Lynn Thornton's birth mother was the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade. Ruth quickly learned that she could not conceive. It could well overturn Roe. She was three days old when Billy drove her home. Somewhere!. The Roe v. Wade decision nearly 50 years ago recognized that the right to personal privacy under the US Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy. I found her! From there, Hanft traced Shelleys path to a town in Washington State, not far from Seattle. 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. When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. In 2005, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by McCorvey to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Soon after, Norma announced that she was hoping to find her third child, the Roe baby. She finally offered, she told me, that she couldnt see herself having an abortion. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Shelley Lynn Thornton - the baby at the center of Roe v. Wade - reveals I can do that too. Shelley had told her children that she was adopted, but she never told them from whom. To better represent that divide in my book, I also wrote about an abortion provider, a lawyer, and a pro-life advocate who are as important to the larger story of abortion in America as they are unknown. She shook when she felt anxious, and she felt anxious, she said, about everything. She was soon suffering symptoms of depression toofeeling, she said, sleepy and sad. But she confided in no one, not her boyfriend and not her mother. Some 20 years had passed since Norma had conceived her third child, yet she had begun searching for that child only a few weeks after retaining a prominent lawyer. Enquirer stating that we have no intensions of [exploiting] you or your family. According to detailed notes taken by Ruth on conversations with her lawyer, who was in contact with various parties, Norma even denied giving consent to the Enquirer to search for her child. I wondered too if he or she might wish to speak about it. she thought. Reporters tricked 19-year-old Shelley Lynn Thornton into meeting them and then demanded to know where she stood on abortion rights. She wondered why she had to choose a side, why anyone did. But a hole in Tobys life had been filled. 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. Official records yielded an adoptive name. Tracing leads, I found my way to her in early 2011. Thornton did not learn her mothers true identity until she was 19 years old, when she says she was tricked by reporters from the National Enquirer. Ruth and Billy didnt hide from Shelley the fact that she had been adopted. Shelley Lynn Thornton, the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey -- the woman behind the Roe v. Wade abortion case -- issued a statement to ABC News on Monday following the Supreme Court's . Norma won her case. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP; Washington Post illustration) Timothy Bella September 9, 2021 Shelley did not know if she ever could. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, have protected access to abortion in state law. She was born in June of 1970, a few months after Norma McCorvey filed Roe and a few years before the case was decided. Shelley Lynn Thornton Speaks Out in First TV Interview McCluskey, the adoption lawyer, was dead, but Norma herself provided Hanft with enough information to start her search: the gender of the child, along with her date and place of birth. Ruth and Billy ran off, settling in the Dallas area. Daughter of 'Jane Roe' on her identity, why she never wanted - YouTube Politico reported Monday night that Justice Samuel Alito, one of six justices appointed by Republican presidents on the nine-member court, wrote a majority draft opinion in February repudiating both Roe and the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey decision. Biological daughter of 'Jane Roe' slams Supreme Court decision to But then, she also didn't consider herself pro-choice. She opened it to find a young woman who introduced herself as Audrey Lavin. Shelley Lynn Thornton, photographed in Tucson this summer. She told ABC News through her spokesperson, "Too many times has a woman's choice, voice, and individual freedom been decided for her by others. Well ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. Hanft normally telephoned the adoptees she found. Wishing to terminate her pregnancy, she filed suit in March 1970 against Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade, challenging the Texas laws that prohibited abortion. Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, revealed herself as the so-called "Roe baby" in The Atlantic, which published an excerpt from an upcoming book about her, her birth mother, her half-sisters and. I am done, she told Doug. Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. McCorvey sued Henry Wade, the Dallas county district attorney, in 1970. In response, a journalist for the National Enquirer found Thornton as a teenager and told her about her prenatal history, which made her sad. Shelley was 15 when she noticed that her hands sometimes shook. Only Melissa truly knew Norma. From Shelleys perspective, it was clear that if she, the Roe baby, could be said to represent anything, it was not the sanctity of life but the difficulty of being born unwanted. Shelley Lynn Thornton - EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki Finding the Roe baby would provide not only exposure but, as she saw it, a means to assail Roe in the most visceral way. She became instead, with the help of McCluskey, the only child of a woman in Dallas named Ruth Schmidt and her eventual husband, Billy Thornton. Now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion is likely to remain legal in liberal states as more than a dozen states currently have laws protecting abortion rights. Shelly Lynn Thornton, 49 - Troy, MI - Reputation & Contact Details She admitted before she died that she made the change in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars. When I read, in early 2010, that Norma had not had an abortion, I began to wonder whether the child, who would then be an adult of almost 40, was aware of his or her background. However, at her request, her name was kept out of the ensuing article, which ran in 1989. The justices are expected to take up a case concerning a similar Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a direct challenge to the 1973 decision. It was like, Oh God! Shelley said. Shelley felt a rush of joy: The woman who had let her go now wanted to know her. In Dobbs, the Court explicitly overruled Roe. So, yeah, Im 100% behind her.. The questionpro-life or pro-choice?hung in the air. The Supreme Court, now dominated by conservative justices, has also agreed to hear a case out of Mississippi concerning pre-viability bans on abortion. Im supposed to thank you for getting knocked up and then giving me away. Shelley went on: I told her I would never, ever thank her for not aborting me. Mother and daughter hung up their phones in anger. Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Also referred to by the pseudonym "Roe Baby", Thornton is the child at the center of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. 'She didn't deserve to meet me,' Thornton said. On January 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court finally handed down its decision, she had long since given birthand relinquished her child for adoption. You had to know cops. Jonah and his two brothers sometimes helped. She wasnt sorry, about giving me away or anything.. She was still afraid to let her secret out, but she hated keeping it in. One incident that grew to bother her, Thornton says, was a 1989 article in the National Enquirer that described her as being pro-life a snippet that anti-abortion activists seized on. The next day, flowers arrived with a note. The three met at a pizza parlor when Norma was eight weeks pregnant. A Current Affair went away. Nearly half a century ago, Roe v. Wade secured a womans legal right to obtain an abortion. 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. The pair spoke on the phone in 1989, Norma McCorvey aka 'Jane Roe' (left) and her attorney Gloria Allred at the Supreme Court in 1989, the year she made her identity known. Thorntons identity as the daughter of Jane Roe, or Norma McCorvey, was revealed last month in an article in the Atlantic. [4], Thornton was McCorvey's third child. She sought help, and was prescribed antidepressants. Shelley Shannon - Wikipedia In 'The Family Roe:' the human side of the landmark abortion case 'Roe v. Wade' (NPR, May 9, 2022, interview with Prager, intro states, "The baby, often referred to as Baby Roe, is Shelly Lynn Thornton, now a grown woman whose story is at the center of Joshua Prager's book The Family Roe."). You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. For her to have to keep that under lock and key for so many years and not talk about it, it can only hurt, and she doesnt want to do that anymore, Ferguson said. Religious certitude left her uncomfortable. He, too, had been adopted. 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 began to cry. She said she couldnt afford to travel to one of the handful of states where it would have been legal. The motion moved through the courts until it was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court in 2005. 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. My association with Roe started and ended because I was conceived," Thornton is quoted saying in the excerpt. In fact, it preceded her birth. She gave birth to three children, each of whom was put up for adoption. Though she was still against abortion, she said she had reservations about the group's confrontational style. And unlike Norma, Shelley was actually raising her child. She never did anything in her life to get that privilege back. We have lots of information about Shelly: religious views . The landmark ruling saw abortions decriminalized in 46 states, but under certain specific conditions which individual states could decide on. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy. She helped him scissor through reams of construction paper and cooled his every bowl of Campbells chicken soup with two ice cubes. In a statement to ABC News, Thornton indicated that she worries the Dobbs ruling could be an omen for future unrest. I dont like not knowing what shes doing, Shelley explained. Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, has revealed herself as the youngest daughter born to Norma McCorvey, whose lawsuit under the pseudonym "Jane Roe" led to the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling that. Eight months had passed since the Enquirer story when, on a Sunday night in February 1990, there was a knock at the door of the home Shelley shared with her mother. Hanft and Fitz had a question for Shelley: Was she pro-choice or pro-life? New COVID vaccines may be needed next year, BioNTech CEO s Woman has 'loud, full body orgasm' in the middle of LA concert, Biden son arrives for baby mama showdown, lawyer says he's already paid $750K support, Michael J. I am never going to be able to get away from this! The lawyer sent another strong letter. I found in them a reference to the place and date of birth of the Roe baby, as well as to her gender. It came to refer to the child as the Roe baby.. ", In the National Enquirer article, she was described as pro-life, which had bothered her because, as she told Prager, she had told the reporter "that she couldnt see herself having an abortion. Norma had told her own story in two autobiographies, but she was an unreliable narrator. She was ambivalent about adoption, too. As the kids grew up, and began to resemble her and Doug in so many ways, Shelley found herself ever more mindful of whom she herself sometimes resembledmindful of where, perhaps, her anxiety and sadness and temper came from. Shelley Lynn Thornton was publicly identified in an excerpt published from an upcoming book Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe in the 1973 court case, left, and her attorney Gloria Allred hold hands as they leave the Supreme Court on April 26, 1989. 'She never did anything in her life to get that privilege back.'. [disputed discuss], Many years later, after Thornton learned of her identity as the "Roe baby", she engaged in telephone conversations with McCorvey. Abortion, she said, was not part of who I was.. How could you possibly talk to someone who wanted to abort you? Norma told one reporter at the time. I'm supposed to thank you for getting knocked up and then giving me away?" She was seeking only the one associated with Roe. And that's all it was. When Shelley was 5, she decided that her birth parents were most likely Elvis Presley and the actor Ann-Margret. Allred interjected that the decision was about choice. But for Norma it was more directly connected to publicity and, she hoped, income. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided that the constitutional right to privacy applied to abortion. That battle is today at its most fierce. We both like the same colors, we both like to do the same crafts and things like that. In a 2020 documentary AKA Jane Roe, McCorvey claimed she had been paid by anti-abortion activists to switch sides. Shelley Lynn Thornton unintentionally had a huge impact on U.S. law after her mother brought a case that would ultimately block state bans on abortion. Shelley Lynn Thornton, the woman whose very conception sparked one of the Supreme Court's most significant legal rulings in U.S. history, is telling her story and making it clear she won't . I knew what I didnt want to do, Shelley said. Shelley had long considered abortion wrong, but her connection to Roe had led her to reexamine the issue. McCorvey eventually brought, and won, a lawsuit, securing for women the constitutional right to an abortion.
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