May 19, 2020

"The new FX documentary 'AKA Jane Roe'... contains a shocking revelation: Roe... played the part of an anti-abortion crusader in exchange for money."

The Daily Beast reports.
[The] 79-minute documentary, featuring many end-of-life reflections from ["Jane Roe," Norma] McCorvey—who grew up queer, poor, and was sexually abused by a family member her mother sent her to live with after leaving reform school—[ she] admits that her later turn to the anti-abortion camp as a born-again Christian was “all an act.”

“This is my deathbed confession,” she chuckles, sitting in a chair in her nursing home room, on oxygen. [The director Nick] Sweeney asks McCorvey, “Did [the evangelicals] use you as a trophy?” “Of course,” she replies. “I was the Big Fish.” “Do you think you would say that you used them?” Sweeney responds. “Well,” says McCorvey, “I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they took me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say. That’s what I’d say.” She even gives an example of her scripted anti-abortion lines. “I’m a good actress,” she points out. “Of course, I’m not acting now.”...

Reverend Schenck, the much more reasonable of the two evangelical leaders featured in the film, also watches the confession and is taken aback. But he’s not surprised, and easily corroborates, saying, “I had never heard her say anything like this… But I knew what we were doing. And there were times when I was sure she knew. And I wondered, Is she playing us? What I didn’t have the guts to say was, because I know damn well we’re playing her."... AKA Jane Roe finds documents disclosing at least $456,911 in “benevolent gifts” from the anti-abortion movement to McCorvey....

98 comments:

eddie willers said...

A real life Pennsatucky?

Nonapod said...

Do you think that the reverse could happen? That is, do you think that it's possible that there could ever be a person who was really Pro Life/Anti-Abortion but was paid by Pro Choice/Pro-Abortion groups to advocate for abortion?

Anonymous said...

Her role in RvW had already established her credentials as a pawn. Leopard. Spots.

I think you will find one high profile grifter will have little effect on the unrelated convictions of Pro-Life individuals.

rhhardin said...

Nobody cares what she thought, except for the presumed moron audience of women.

AZ Bob said...

What would Judge Sullivan say about this fraud on the court?

Mark said...

The anti-abortion industry has done an excellent job making sure they didn't actually stop abortion, that would stop their paychecks.

I have the feeling $450,000 is peanuts to these folks.

Temujin said...

"I have the feeling $450,000 is peanuts to these folks."

It certainly would be peanuts to Planned Parenthood.

Wince said...

This underscores one of the reasons to overturn Roe and let the states decide.

Nationalization of the abortion issue has created two large, permanent national campaigns that thrive financially by keeping the controversy alive.

DrSquid said...

Anti-abortion activists receive paychecks?

wild chicken said...

So what about the NY abortion doc who lobbied for legalization? Abramson, I think his name was. Said he'd done 5000 abortions and then turned anti. Rather late it seemed.

Was that fake too?

gilbar said...

“Of course, I’m not acting now.”...

of COURSE NOT! No One, Would EVER think differently
You've lied your Whole Life... no reason to keep doing it now

Gahrie said...

If you're willing to kill your baby for convivence…

Tomcc said...

Well now, that changes everything!
Yes, Mark, conservative causes have financial backers; something completely unheard of in the liberal sphere.

Amadeus 48 said...

Bottom story of the day.

Meanwhile, Gen. Flynn's lawyers have filed with the DC Circuit Court for a writ of mandamus to put Judge Sullivan back in the Cracker Jack box, figuratively speaking.

Here's a pro tip for you judges out there: if you are going to rip the criminal defendant before you in open court, at least know the facts of the case. Sullivan's biggest mistake was getting his knowledge of the Flynn case from the opinion columns of WaPoop.

rcocean said...

So what? Was she lying at the end for the cameras - or all those years before? And what does it matter.

Its just more of the left-wing fakery. Demoralize the opposition by showing all the leaders & famous supporters to be con-men and insincere. But what about the leaders on "your" side? Oh, well, you don't question them. The same thing is done with ethics. R Presidents have administrations full of greedy unethical people and sexual harassers. And the D Presidents? Well, we'll let Fox news prove they exist.

rcocean said...

Large numbers of people on every side of every issue are their primarily for a paycheck or because they can gain/keep power. That doesn't mean they're all con-men. How many R Senators *really* gave a damn about Kavanaugh getting on the SCOTUS, or preventing Obama from filling Scalia's seat? But it didn't matter, as long as they voted the right way.

Joe said...

To quote the interrogators of Gen. James Flynn "Were you lying then, or are you lying now?"

BUMBLE BEE said...

Believe ALL women.

hstad said...


Blogger Nonapod said...Do you think that the reverse could happen? 5/19/20, 2:02 PM

Yes "Nonapod" it could happen - hell anything could happen - so what's your point. Was their a person you had in mind, which is the equivalent 'posture child' as 'Jane Doe'? That's really the crux of this arguement - it's 'Jane Doe'!

Inga said...

Well, who would’ve ever thought that something like that could possibly happen?!

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...


"So what? Was she lying at the end for the cameras - or all those years before?"

Yeah, she could monetize it a few times. The last person who pays her to change her story wins.

Wa St Blogger said...

Shocking new documents prove: Wiberforce was in it for the money.

wendybar said...

So she is for ripping babies apart in the womb and selling the parts??? Who cares?? Her family is probably getting paid for her to lie again. Once a liar....

Wa St Blogger said...

Shocking new documents prove: Wilberforce was in it for the money.

Nonapod said...

so what's your point. Was their a person you had in mind

No. My point was simply to ask people to imagine how likely something like that would be. Which side do you think generally has more faith in their cause?

Personally while I agree with the sentiment that "anything could happen", I believe it far less likely that you would ever have a person who is truly Pro Life taking money to say things that are against their belief system than the reverse, which of course actually did happe here. There's a number of reasons I think that way.

Michael said...

So is she now playing the opposite part for other people's money?

Tom T. said...

It sounds like she had a really hard start to her life. I imagine that a lot of kids in that situation would have been aborted if it had been more readily available.

YoungHegelian said...

Did Ms McCorvey have a job while she was a pro-life activist, or was she a "professional activist"? If she didn't have a job, how was she supposed to live without an income of some sort.

What nonsense! The network of right-wing activism has people who get paid! The Left has always had paid activists. The US Communist Party was famous for its instant "Rent-a-Demonstration" services. It was based around cadres of local organizers who kept lists of fellow activist they could gin up on a moment's notice.

Do you think that the local organizers of e.g. Antifa aren't paid? Get real!

RMc said...

AKA Jane Roe finds documents disclosing at least $456,911 in “benevolent gifts” from the anti-abortion movement to McCorvey

But she grew up queer and poor, so it's all good.

Original Mike said...

" [ she] admits that her later turn to the anti-abortion camp as a born-again Christian was “all an act.”"…“I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they took me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say."

So, she's David Brock then.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, didn’t I TELL you women lie?

walter said...

David Harsanyi
@davidharsanyi
·
19h
Killing a unborn baby is a decision made solely by a woman and her doctor. Taking hydroxychloroquine is a joint decision between a man, his doctor, every Democrat in congress, and all on-air talent at CNN.

DanTheMan said...

Who would begrudge this woman a half million for standing in front of cameras and lying?

Many people make much more for doing the same thing.

hombre said...

Evidently, I’ve missed something here. Does this mean that the slaughter of 60 million unborn children was/is moral?

I thought not!

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

For the next FX documentary, we can uncover how much Christine Blasey Ford was paid.

Sally327 said...

She was probably never the best example of the noble poor. It all seemed a bit convenient but mostly just pointless when she came out as anti-abortion. And pointless now that we're told she disavowed her disavowal. Her particular point of view really didn't matter.

JackWayne said...

Now tell us how much she was paid to be pro-abortion.

Big Mike said...

When I first heard McCorvey‘s back story I wondered whether she considered that her mother might very well have aborted her if only abortion had been legal in Louisiana in 1947. Then she became an anti-abortion activist and I thought I had my answer. Now I am back to wondering, except since McCorvey has been dead three years we’ll never know.

Still, since McCorvey went to her grave saying that her times in reform school were the happiest of her life, it can’t have been a very happy one. Perhaps she spent most of her sad life being sorry she had ever been born.

Freeman Hunt said...

I've always assumed that the majority of the big, public crusaders for anything are largely driven by big financial incentives or the desire for fame.

Bob Smith said...

If all us right wing, rethuglican, knuckle dragging racist, billy clubbers actually read the abortion statistics we’d be funding Planned Parenthood all by ourselves.

MBunge said...

I'm genuinely confused as to what moral message the filmmakers think they're sending. Are we supposed to be horrified that the pro-life movement paid money to McCorvey? Or are we supposed to ponder the truth of the pro-choice movement being founded on the back of a lying garbage person?

Mike

DavidUW said...

If only evangelicals had a grounding theology, like us Catholics, then they would feel the need to bribe people to support their views. This is what happens when you’re insecure about your heretical beliefs.

bagoh20 said...

I assumed she was genuine. Even if it was fake, she probably saved a lot of lives with it, and many of them are walking among us today. Some don't know how close they came to not being, and many of them not knowing are likely pro-abortion.

rhhardin said...

@Althouse, didn’t I TELL you women lie?

Women are actresses, not liars.

Bay Area Guy said...

My take is that, if there is a God, he is displeased with a society of people, who thought it ok to abort 25 - 50 Million little babies since Roe v Wade. Much more so than Norma McCorveys games.

And if there is no God, well, abort away! Doesn't matter.

narciso said...

same network that is defaming Phyllis schafly, through hulu, which put up dreck like Russell brand and w kamau bell and louis ck, so not surprising,

bagoh20 said...

Was she on the morphine drip? That can make you a little playful.

Jim Gust said...

I am almost as shocked to learn this as when I discovered there was gambling going on in Rick's Cafe.

Achilles said...

Must not stop planned parenthood from harvesting baby parts.

John henry said...

Kurt Vonnegut wrote a whole novel about this in the 60s or 70s.

Great novel and great mo ie with nick Nolte and Alan arkin.

Mother night

John Henry

tim maguire said...

Nonapod said...
Do you think that the reverse could happen? That is, do you think that it's possible that there could ever be a person who was really Pro Life/Anti-Abortion but was paid by Pro Choice/Pro-Abortion groups to advocate for abortion?


Yeah, that describes about half the democratic congressional delegation.

Lurker21 said...

It sounds like maybe she just fell in behind anybody who could give her an income and a purpose, but it probably hurt her to have to break up with her lover during her Evangelical phase, so at the end of her life she took it out on those who were her allies back then.

Michael K said...

When I first heard McCorvey‘s back story I wondered whether she considered that her mother might very well have aborted her if only abortion had been legal in Louisiana in 1947.

If only Hillary's mother had had access to abortion, as was so poignantly explained by Chelsea.

narciso said...

the huntress gets slammed by game change, Thomas gets a bucket of slime from that Kerry Washington vehicle,

Otto said...

Modern feminism is based on her case. Now years from the history books will say - This poor drug addict whore was prevented from getting income by whoring to meet her drug needs because she was pregnant. It is up to the woman to decide and you are denying her rights therefore abortion is legal.
What an ignoble movement. Pure basement living.

Howard said...

Thanks to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, she's now burning in eternal hellfire. I wish we could see her face... not so smug I bet.

narciso said...

this nick Sweeney, I'm sure he's very understanding,


https://www.nick-sweeney.com/About

alanc709 said...

So, she was a whore to the end, doing whoever paid her.

narciso said...

she tried to make amends, one much only worship moloch, see Kerry Washington's paen to abortion,

Spiros said...

Ms. McCorvey's miraculous moral transformation was a lie?

BUMBLE BEE said...

Just a hop skip and a jump from in utero to in senior home. Gotta lotta Mengele goin on.

FullMoon said...

Sonds amusing.
Meanwhile, Waco: rules of engagement (on prime) features Biden and Schumer , as well as FBI and Dea officials lying in front of congress. Authentic real time video,recordings and testimony from survivors as well as video of cultists befoe government murdered them.

Waiting for Superman(prime and hulu) also pretty good. Genuine poor parents with kids stuck in public schools praying and hoping they can get into charter school while teachers union and govt does everything in their power to keep 'em down in the gutter.

FullMoon said...

Guess this explains Linda Lovelace conversion also? She probably did not get paid as much.

Jupiter said...

"The anti-abortion industry has done an excellent job making sure they didn't actually stop abortion, that would stop their paychecks."

Yeah, you have to wonder how they can sleep at night, knowing how many lives they must have saved. It would be like being a cardiologist or something.

bagoh20 said...

She may have lied, but I think we can all agree it was worth it IF IT SAVES ONE LIFE, or one million.

narciso said...

it's prefaced before the execrable adaptation of red sparrow I've mentioned,

Big Mike said...

@rhhardin (4:32), do you mean some of my old girl friends were faking their orgasms? Now I am TOTALLY broken-hearted.

Drago said...

Howard: "Thanks to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, she's now burning in eternal hellfire. I wish we could see her face... not so smug I bet."

Howard once again, courageously, takes on those darn Christians.

I haven't seen courage like that since the boys stormed Normandy.

Smerdyakov said...

Accidental fame.
She is a footnote.
The lawsuit was a long time coming and the narrative was ready.
Insert Norma McCovey.

YoungHegelian said...

@FullMoon,

Guess this explains Linda Lovelace conversion also? She probably did not get paid as much.

Lovelace got paid in tips.

Get it? In tips!!!

I'm here all week, folks!

hawkeyedjb said...

I've long thought of the abortion wars as a struggle between two groups of religious zealots. For the most part, the pro-life side is motivated Christians. For the pro-choice people, abortion itself is the religion.

rcocean said...

What she was really saying in her last words was that she was an attention whore, first for one side, and then for the other.

Yancey Ward said...

How much did the documentary producers pay her? Sounds like the lady was taking payments from everyone for her story on both sides.

Charlotte Allen said...

She died three years ago. Why is this coming out now? Presumably she's on videotape, so we know she actually said all that--but it's really strange. It sounds as though a lot of people and pro-life groups sent her donations over a very long period of time beginning in the 1980s when she converted. If it added up to $450,000, it could have been as little as $15,000 a year over 30 years. It all sounds quite pathetic.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Parts of me, not like KP took credit for, died when Trump was convicted in the media for Obama's crimes so vast they can never ever be io ipso.

Chicago needs to burn again, I guess. Democracy certainly won't help in that wasteland of morals and endplace of what used to be decency.

Good thing is Democratics will guarantee it burns, their way or other Satanic ways.

Will Althouses light matches or pour gas, via their hatred of patriarchy?

David53 said...

If her lying saved some lives, then good.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"Thanks to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, she's now burning in eternal hellfire. I wish we could see her face... not so smug I bet.

5/19/20, 5:39 PM"

Yes, Jesus controls who goes to Hell because we (humans not Jesus) have no free will and no control of anything: there is only what He chooses as our destiny.

But why assume anyone burning in eternity in Hell has a face? My assumption is it is burned instantly, gone forever. The face, and body also.

As a dirty Marine child-murdering fascist this is your area of expertise though, and I eagerly await your wisdom of Hell I seemingly am unaware of.

What is your assumption?

Guildofcannonballs said...

"Too bad, but that's the way it goes."

What is gained by this "but" placed here? I've heard Germans have certain fixations but don't want to assume more than is necessary.

"Too bad, that's the way it goes."

That will be $1000 for the partial hour I spent grading, knowing I am right, but without credulity to gain prominence.

See, that "but" I used is the "butt monkey" the gal, Grahaham?, who used to date Keith fucking Olbermann but is now super conservative coined. But good for her for her transition.

narciso said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TJM said...

Enjoy Hell

Mark said...

Thanks to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, she's now burning in eternal hellfire. I wish we could see her face... not so smug I bet

Here I thought that "Mark" had the stupidist and most ignorant comment. But this one from Howard wins the prize.

narciso said...

She was a small time figure, that wattleton and company used at the time, so open up the temples to moloch.

n.n said...

Anti-[elective] abortion or pro-human rights. The Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic religion, not limited to reproductive rites, is an anachronistic residual from a progressive era, when wicked solutions were normalized under a quasi-secular faith.

n.n said...

Compare and contrast the excess deaths caused by Her Choice (e.g. HIV, SARS-CoV-2), her Choice, and Planned Parenthood... an essential service? Here's to progress: one step forward, two steps backward.

Gahrie said...

But why assume anyone burning in eternity in Hell has a face?

There are no flames in the Hell of the Bible. According to the Bible, Hell is simply where those who have been banished from Heaven and the presence of God reside. The only torture is the knowledge that you have been forever denied God's love.

The pitchforks and flames are artistic inventions.

Phil 314 said...

Disappointing but doesn't really change the gist of the arguments?

"If only evangelicals had a grounding theology, like us Catholics, then they would feel the need to bribe people to support their views. This is what happens when you’re insecure about your heretical beliefs."

Huh?

Quaestor said...

Lies and homicide, don't these things always follow one upon another?

cubanbob said...

What's the Left agitated about? She piously lied in the service of the (counter) revolution. And got paid for it. Progs get this. It's their bread and butter.

Big Mike said...

Thanks to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, she's now burning in eternal hellfire. I wish we could see her face... not so smug I bet.

@Howard, when you die and go down there, look around and see if she’s present.

AlanKH said...

One FB friend doubts the story because of who reported it. I am skeptical for a different reason: how does someone fake 22 years of friendship with a church community? Think of all the personal conversations she must have engaged in all that time. Not even Patrick Stewart could stay in character for that long.

Jim in St Louis said...

Rest in Peace Norma.

Althouse is (among other things) a legal blog, I've been hoping for an analysis of June Medical Services v. Russo (formerly June Medical Services v. Gee).

Specifically the point about standing. In Roe, there was an actual person (McCorvey) who alleged that she herself had a constitutional right to an abortion. The court agreed (Lord knoweth how) and struck down all state laws that forbid abortion.

In every case since, it has not been an individual that claimed a particular law was unconstitutional, but instead it has been an abortion clinic that sued (or was sued) and the clinics told they court that they were standing in for the women whose rights were being argued.

The June case addresses what requirements the state can place on doctors qualifications (i.e. admitting privileges). The court is finally going to rule if a clinic has standing even when its own interests are in conflict with the woman's, (i.e. patient safety).

Can a clinic say that the women who use their service are placed under an undue burden by the clinic having to meet some state requirement? Isn't that a conflict of interest?

Matt Sablan said...

I mean, did anyone not know this happened?

I kind of expected there was something going on. Much like how any advocate rakes in money from the people who want them to advocate.

Matt Sablan said...

"I believe it far less likely that you would ever have a person who is truly Pro Life taking money to say things that are against their belief system than the reverse, which of course actually did happe here."

-- Probably right. It is probably harder to pay someone to say "That's not murder," when they think it is, then it is to pay someone to say, "We shouldn't have abortion," when they think it is a personal choice which is none of their business.

Jeff Brokaw said...

She was used by the pro-abortion side to bring the case in the first place.

What is the value of highlighting this story or the quoted section? Because the motives of the evangelicals were not pure enough, in a legal battle?

That’s so cute. Who gives a shit?


paminwi said...

I’d ask the nursing home who was paying her bills to be there?The documentary folks “happened” to find docs supporting payments of $400K of payments over exactly how many years? Isn’t Roe like 30+ years old? That’s not very much per year then.
Who ended up paying her nursing home bills which we all know can be $10K/month. Medicare/Medicaid? Or someone else who said we will pay your bills if you lie for our documentary? Any documents found for that situation?
Once a grifter, always a grifter..

Tina Trent said...

How is "benevolent gifts" different from "six-figure non-profit salaries"?

I once knew a lawyer for Planned Parenthood who told me she'd never met anyone who didn't have health insurance. Frankly, I believed her.

Charlotte Allen said...

I recommend reading this excellent and thoroughly reported 2013 article about Norma McCorvey in Vanity Fair:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2013/02/norma-mccorvey-roe-v-wade-abortion

McCorvey was a lifelong grifter and attention whore who took money from whoever would give it to her. She lied from the beginning, saying she had been raped (and hence needed the abortion) when she had not. She turned on her lawyers, she kept for herself money that was supposed to go to the "Jane Roe Foundation" she set up, and then she turned on the pro-choice movement when the spotlight turned off her and the money stopped flowing in her direction. She did the same thing when she flipped over to the pro-life movement, pocketing whatever she could. As for the pro-lifers' alleged paying her to flip, it seems more like a bunch of well-meaning people were willing to pay her a salary to run her new "Roe No More" Foundation (a $40K-per-year salary doesn't sound excessive), as well as fly her around to give speeches, subsidize her living expenses, etc. And when the pro-life money ran out...it was back to pro-choice. Years before her death she had announced her latest change of heart and her planned 2016 vote for pro-choice Hillary. Lastly, she abandoned the older woman who had been her lesbian lover and later a platonic housemate, moving out and far away after the woman had a stroke. All along there were lies of various kinds to various people. Whether her 1990s conversion to Christianity was sincere or just a fake, as she claimed before her death is hard to say, since she couldn't seem to tell a straight story to anyone.

As for Schenk, the "minister" who claims that he and the rest of the pro-life movement were cynically using McCorvey, I wouldn't pay him much mind. He's the David Brock of evangelicals--opportunistically seeing the liberal light and doing a turnaround on abortion. He's about as believable as McCorvey. Flip Benham is a nutcase who gives pro-lifers a bad name, but at least he's sincere.

The most distressing thing to me about the whole McCorvey matter is the "figurehead plaintiff" aspect of Roe vs. Wade.. Why are lawyers who want to contest laws they don't like in court instead of through the political process allowed to shop around for cardboard people who aren't really their clients in any meaningful sense but who have a story to tell that is useful for signing affidavits? Why isn't this champerty and maintenance, and thus grounds for disbarment? The practice--blatantly used with Norma McCorvey, who was interviewed by her "lawyers" to make sure she was the client they wanted--also seems to undermine the doctrine of standing in federal court, which requires that there actually be a "case or controversy" instead of some rando suing because he or she doesn't like a particular law and can make an argument that it is unconstitutional. America would have been spared much grief and division had there been no Roe vs. Wade, and the contentious issue of abortion been worked out in state legislatures.

Michael K said...

More pushback on that FX "documentary."

“And now she no longer can come back and set the record straight. This is simply how the media works these days – manipulate as many facts and soundbites as possible to tell a lie. Even worse, to manipulate the emotions of a sickly, dying woman to push your narrative,” he added. “My boys spoke with Miss Norma before her death…and they were just as shocked as me to see this new story. David simply said, ‘Dad, isn’t it convenient to release this when she’s dead, because I know Norma well enough that she’d come right back and demand these people set the record straight.'”