Pro-life leaders who knew Norma McCorvey, aka “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, firmly deny they paid McCorvey to change her abortion rhetoric, as a new documentary claims.
The documentary, AKA JANE ROE, features interviews with McCorvey, who says, “I took their money, and they’d put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That’s what I’d say.”
When asked by the director if her pro-life views were all an act, McCorvey replied: “Yeah, I did it well too. I am a good actress — of course I’m not acting now.”
However, pro-life leaders like Flip Benham, who baptized McCorvey, say this is simply untrue.
“AKA JANE ROE in no way reflects the real history and miracle of faith that transformed both Miss Norma and Miss Connie. It is, unfortunately, Nick Sweeney’s attempt to rewrite history and shoehorn statements from a dying, hurting woman into his truncated and perverted view of life,” Benham said in a press release.
“We never paid Miss Norma a penny,” Benham said. “We certainly helped Miss Norma and Miss Connie Gonzales (her lesbian partner at the time) to get back on their feet after Jasbur Ahluwalia, the owner and abortionist at A Choice for Women fired them. They had no source of income. Many in our group would donate to help them get along, but we did this for all the abortion mill employees who quit their jobs and trusted Jesus. We would help them find work, find church homes, take care of their kids, whatever we could do for them we did.”
“We also did this for abortion minded mothers who desperately needed help. We took care of them. This is what Christians do—we still do this today,” Benham’s release continued.
Other pro-life leaders who knew McCorvey said she genuinely lived out her pro-life beliefs.
Lauren Muzyka, the executive director of the pro-life organization Sidewalk Advocates, said she used to pray next to McCorvey on the sidewalks outside abortion clinics.
Lila Rose of Live Action said she had many friends in common with McCorvey, and McCorvey’s conversion to Christianity was very real.
Janet Morena, executive director of Priests for Life, was a personal friend of McCorvey’s and shared many stories on Twitter about McCorvey’s change of heart after Roe V. Wade took effect.
McCorvey herself told the New York Times in 1994 how miserable she was as an abortion advocate.
“[Pro-abortion attorney] Sarah [Weddington] saw these cuts on my wrists, my swollen eyes from crying, the miserable person sitting across from her, and she knew she had a patsy. She knew I wouldn’t go outside of the realm of her and Linda. I was too scared. It was one of the most hideous times of my life,” McCorvey said at the time.
Benham, who said he has only seen the trailer to the documentary, believes the McCorvey did say some “outrageous things,” but these statements do not reflect the transformative work Christ did in her life.
“Anyone can gather facts, grab statements and twist them to tell a lie. This is what happened to my dying friend, Miss Norma McCorvey,” Benham said.
“I saw that he got Miss Norma on tape saying some pretty outrageous things. Again, I have not seen the full video, but that was just Norma being Norma. Those who knew her best, know this. She was, indeed, utterly unfiltered and a whole lot of fun. Yet, she could also be very fickle and hard-headed (just like me!) And, she said many things that were simply not true at times, only to come back and set the record straight. This was simply part of her maturing walk with Jesus,” Benham continued.
Yet, AKA JANE ROE seeks to erase McCorvey’s testimony and replace it with a revisionist agenda.
In her dying days, this FX documentary has sought to redefine the life-changing legacy of Jesus Christ for over three decades in Norma McCorvey’s life…all with a few, flippant statements. Sad.”
McCorvey’s ultimate pro-life legacy is so staunch that even the New York Times complained in her obituary that she was not the “idealized Jane Roe crusader many Americans visualized.”
Furthermore, the paper reported, “She underwent two religious conversions, as a born-again Christian and as a Roman Catholic, and became in her last decades a staunch foe of abortion, vowing to undo Roe v. Wade, testifying in Congress and bitterly attacking Barack Obama when he ran for president and then re-election.”
Now in her death, abortion supporters want to twist her narrative to deny Christ and gain fuel for their evil movement that has killed millions of people in their most vulnerable state of life and caused a drastic birth dearth that is destroying civilization.
Media-wise consumers should use the documentary as an opportunity to practice discernment and recognize that what appears on screen is often a revisionist’s take on true historical events.
By Jessilyn Lancaster and originally published by Movieguide.