Norma McCorvey.
Photo by Lorie Shaull, courtesy of Wikipedia.
[Editor’s Note: A near version of the following was sent to The Boston Globe, which to date hasn’t published it. It is published here for the first time.]
To the Editor of The Boston Globe:
One could not help but note that approaching the nation’s 242nd birthday, four of the five Letters to the Editor on July 3rd expressed concerns relative to the replacement of Supreme Court Justice Kennedy. Two of the letter writers took direct aim at their perceived need to uphold the 45-year-old Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
The preamble of this nation’s Declaration of Independence lists the right to life first among those enumerated, followed by that of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The sequence is not ever questioned. What is, however, is the elimination of that right to life for the developing human in utero.
The late Dr. Joseph Stanton, who had delivered thousands of babies and was the founder of the Value of Life Committee before the Roe v. Wade decision was announced in 1973, said this new legal right to abort the unborn child’s existence “was cut out of whole cloth.” It is quite obvious that any new member of the Supreme Court who takes an originalist view in constitutional law interpretation would agree with the venerable Dr. Stanton.
As regards content, however, the letter from Laguna Beach, California was striking, especially because it called for organizing a panel of women “representing the world of finance, health and the law” as a help “to clarify views on Roe v Wade.” It brought back memories of the plaintiff herself, the late Norma McCorvey, who used the Roe pseudonym, later denouncing her role in this landmark decision. She did so when dining in our home, on her first visit ever to Boston.
“Miss Norma,” as she enjoyed being called according to her Cajun upbringing, gave birth to the child she was carrying when her legal case started in 1969 and allowed the girl to be adopted. Yet her initial desire for an abortion was used by abortion advocates to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn several years later all state laws that made abortion illegal.
She repeated to me words she had used before: “I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that our experiment with abortion is an utter failure.” She added, “I will spend my life undoing the law that bears my name.”
And she did.
These sentiments of the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade have much more credibility than those in the Globe’s Inbox on July 3, 2018. The Boston Globe would do well to present a balanced view of the Roe v. Wade decision — and its true history.
R.T. Neary is a past president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life.
Norma McCorvey.
Photo by Lorie Shaull, courtesy of Wikipedia. 
