Her identity was only made public in September by The Atlantic. She married Elwood McCorveyat the age of 16, but separated shortly after while she was pregnant. But he did not identify them, or Norma, or say anything about the Roe lawsuit that Norma had filed three months earlier. The daughter of Jane Roe the woman whose case was used in the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision says she has no regrets about never meeting her biological mother. . Life Shelley Lynn Thornton was born to Norma McCorvey on June 2, 1970, at the Dallas Osteopathic Hospital. 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. 'I can deal with that. She nearly met her birth mother in 1994; according to Thornton, McCorvey told her on the phone that she should have thanked her for not having an abortion. A week passed before Ruth explained that Billy would not return. I'm not the one who createdthis movement. It had helped him with women, too. Religious certitude left her uncomfortable. The evidence was unassailable. Shelley also asked about her two half sisters, but Norma wanted to speak only about herself and Shelley, the two people in the family tied to Roe. ', Shelley Thorton was adopted as a baby and raised by Ruth and Billy Thornton, a married couple. The Enquirer published an article in 1989 revealing the so-called 'Roe baby' had been found but, at her request, did not reveal Thornton's identity. Melissa Mills is one of them (pictured in 2021). However, she performed an unlikely U-turn in 1995, becoming a born-again Christian and began traveling the country speaking out against the procedure. In April 1989, Norma McCorvey attended an abortion-rights march in Washington, D.C. She had revealed her identity as Jane Roe days after the Roe decision, in 1973, but almost a decade elapsed before she began to commit herself to the pro-choice movement. A decade later, in 1981, Norma briefly volunteered for the National Organization for Women in Dallas. Thanks for contacting us. On June 2, 1970, 37 girls had been born in Dallas County; only one of them had been placed for adoption. I found her! From there, Hanft traced Shelleys path to a town in Washington State, not far from Seattle. I have wished that for her forever and have never told anyone.. But she slept with women a lot more and worked in lesbian bars." But Shelley let the hours pass on that winters day. Lavin wrote that Shelley was of American historyboth a part of a great decision for women and the truest example of what the right to life can mean. Her desire to tell Shelleys story represented, she wrote, an obligation to our gender. She signed off with an invitation to call her at Seattles Stouffer Madison Hotel. Despite everything, Shelley sometimes entertained the hope of a relationship with Norma. The case went on to the Supreme Court, under the filing Roe vs Wade, to protect McCorvey's privacy. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Nearly half a century ago, Roe v. Wade secured a womans legal right to obtain an abortion. Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in Roe v.. Shelley was happy. Her conception, in 1969, led to the lawsuit that ultimately produced Roe v. Wade. Hanft would remember it differently, that Shelley had told her she was pro-life., Hanft and Fitz revealed at the restaurant that they were working for the Enquirer. 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. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, She didn't deserve to meet me. She gave her baby girl up for adoption, and now that baby is an adult. 'Roe baby' Shelley Lynn Thornton says she's not going to let either Biological daughter of 'Jane Roe' slams Supreme Court decision to (That interview was never published; the reporter kept his notes.) She never did anything in her life to get that privilege back. If Roe was overturned, he went on, countless others would be saved too. Hanft and Fitz said that a DNA test could be arranged. Hanft, though, attested in writing that, to the contrary, she had started looking for Shelley in conjunction [with] and with permission from Ms. McCorvey. The tabloid had a written record of Normas gratitude. Her plan for a Roseanne-style reunion was coming apart. [3], In 2021, Thornton's identity as the "Roe baby" was released in Joshua Prager's book, The Family Roe: An American Story. Although McCorvey had sought an abortion, she was prohibited from doing so by the laws in Texas at that time. I am sick and tired of having to fight over abortion rights, New York Gov. 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. You tell me. I think she was taken advantage of by both sides, but I think she also took advantage of both sides, Thornton told ABC News. This story has been shared 411,273 times. Soon after, Norma announced that she was hoping to find her third child, the Roe baby. Norma could be salty and fun, but she was also self-absorbed and dishonest, and she remained, until her death in 2017, at the age of 69, fundamentally unhappy. In a statement to ABC News, Thornton indicated that she worries the Dobbs ruling could be an omen for future unrest. Four more states are considered likely to quickly pass bans now that Roe is overturned. 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. Today Show - Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, the daughter of | Facebook Shelley Lynn Thornton, Roe v. Wade Baby: 5 quick facts - The Hiu But she never had the abortion. Only the following January did it offer its historic seven-to-two decision - overturning the Texas laws and setting a legal precedent that has had ramifications in all 50 states. 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 . 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. McCorveywas baptized an evangelical Christian in the 1990s before network TV cameras by Benham, who was the leader of Operation Rescue, now known as Operation Save America, Norma McCorveystands with her friend Meredith Champion, 9, at an Operation Rescue rally in downtown Dallas in January 1997. Afterwards, Thornton spoke to McCorvey on the phone. Lavin told Shelley that she would do nothing without her consent. She said that Shelley would be in touch if she wished to talk. Shelley did not know if she ever could. Norma blamed the shooting on Roe, but it likely had to do with a drug deal. If the court decides in favor of the state, Roe v. Wade will effectively be overturned. Because of state legislation preventing abortions unless the mother's life is at risk, she was unable to undergo the procedure in a safe and legal environment. They sat down on a couch, none of their feet quite touching the floor. Shelley Lynn Thornton, Roe v. Wade Baby: 5 Fast Facts | Heavy.com Hanft and Fitz had a question for Shelley: Was she pro-choice or pro-life? Decades after her father left home, it would occur to Shelley that the genesis of her unease preceded his disappearance. She would become known as the plaintiff, Jane Roe, in the 1973 Supreme Court case that made abortion a federally protected right. In early 1991, Shelley found herself pregnant. Roe's lawyers said she was unable to travel out of the state to obtain an abortion and argued that the law was too vague and infringed on her constitutional rights. She wastwo-and-a-half when Roe v Wade was decided, Norma McCorvey (left) holds a pro-choice sign with former attorney Gloria Allred (right) in front of the US Supreme Court building on April 26, 1989. Controversial NHS Tavistock transgender clinic is threatened with court action by watchdog after failing to 'If I didn't build it, somebody else would've': The Godfather of A.I. I want her to know, the Enquirer quoted Norma as saying, Ill never force myself upon her. McCorvey is pictured in July 2011. I can't deal with lies and treachery and things like that. Shelley Lynn Thornton, photographed in Tucson this summer. She is 51. My whole thinking is that, Oh God, everybodys going to hate me because everyones going to blame me for abortion being legal. You know, its like Its all my fault, is pretty much what I was thinking, she said. Shelley Lynn Thornton was two-and-a-half years old when the Roe v. Wade ruling was issued. They soared on swings, unaware that happy playgrounds had always made Norma ache for themthe daughters she had let go. She graduated from Highline High School in 1988 and entered secretarial school. Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey and spoke on the record for the first time in 2021. Norma struggled to answer. Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, has come forward to reveal that she is the youngest daughter of McCorvey - the woman known as Jane Roe Thornton was the only child of her adopted parents Ruth Schmidt. "In his majority opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun noted that a 'pregnancy will come to term before the usual appellate process is complete,'" Prager writes. The more people Shelley knew, the more she worried that one of them might learn of her connection to Roe. But there was no mistake: Shelley had been born in Dallas Osteopathic Hospital, where Norma had given birth, on June 2, 1970. Shelley Lynn Thornton is the baby of Roe vs. Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey. Two years after the Enquirer article and as an unmarried 20-year-old, Thornton discovered she was pregnant. She never expressed genuine feeling for me or genuine remorse for doing the things that she did, saying the things that she did over and over and over again. Her identity was not publicly known until 2021. Shelley Lynn Thornton (born June 2, 1970) is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey. In a television studio in Manhattan, the Today host Jane Pauley asked Norma why she had decided to look for her. She asked Norma about her father. I guess I dont understand why its a government concern, she told Prager, saying she thought any abortion laws should not be influenced by religion and politics. In 1991, Thornton became pregnant and did not have an abortion because abortion was "not part of who I was". Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey and spoke on the record for the first time in 2021. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. 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. 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. Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. She was also convicted in U.S. federal court for ten attacks at abortion clinics using arson or acid. When tenants in the complex moved out, he took her with him to rummage through whatever they had left behinddolls and books and things like that, Shelley recalled. I want to hold you now and give you my love, but Im still upset about the fact that I couldnt abort you? But speaking to her daughter for the first time, Norma didnt mention abortion.