Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion 25 years ago, finally testified Wednesday on behalf of anti-abortion rights activists facing civil racketeering allegations.
But federal jurors didn’t learn of her role in the landmark court case, unless they violated a judge’s order not to watch, listen or read media reports of her appearance or that of any other witness.
U.S. District Judge David Coar, who is presiding over the sometimes-heated case, agreed with the National Organization for Women that McCorvey’s identity as Roe was irrelevant in a case about allegedly illegal activity by protesters at abortion clinics.
Testimony by McCorvey, who converted to the anti-abortion rights cause in 1995, was limited to what she saw in the four years before her conversion, when she was marketing director at several abortion clinics in Dallas.
McCorvey testified she never witnessed any anti-abortion rights activists use violence, though she had some arrested.
McCorvey, who prefers to be addressed as “Miss Norma,” said she makes a living as “a professional speaker for life.” Before her stints in the abortion clinics, she worked in a carnival and sold used cars.
In a rare light moment in the trial, NOW attorney Fay Clayton opened her cross-examination by asking McCorvey if she was any good at selling used cars.
“Yes, I sold a truck one night that didn’t even have a motor in it,” she said to laughter in the courtroom. “The guy pushed it off the lot, and he was happy.”
Later, McCorvey said she wasn’t upset her testimony was limited.
McCorvey had waited to testify last week for several hours but had to be rescheduled until Wednesday.
In a precedent-setting use of a federal law originally aimed at organized crime, NOW has accused anti-abortion rights activists of a national conspiracy to shut down abortion clinics. The suit charges that anti-abortion rights leaders, including Joseph M. Scheidler of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, used violent tactics–such as blockading clinic doors and harassing women entering clinics.
