JANE ROE JR.

Roe v. Wade Baby’s Identity Finally Revealed After Decades of Secrecy

The baby was at the center of the 1973 lawsuit that ultimately legalized abortion across the country.

A 51-year-old Arizona mother of three named Shelley Lynn Thornton has identified herself as the daughter of Norma McCorvey, a.k.a. Jane Roe, whose victory in the Roe v. Wade lawsuit affirmed the legal right of women in the U.S. to obtain an abortion. McCorvey, who filed in 1970 after unsuccessfully seeking an abortion in Texas, had long since given birth and given her child up for adoption by the time the Supreme Court handed down their 7-2 decision ruling three years later. Now, “the Roe baby” has stepped forward to tell her story to journalist Joshua Prager. Thornton explained to Prager she decided to come forward now, after more than half a century of silence, because she’s tired of the “secrets and lies.”

Prager, who published an excerpt of his forthcoming book The Family Roe: An American Story in The Atlantic on Thursday, wrote that Thornton never met her birth mother in person before McCorvey’s 2017 death. In fact, Thornton remained unaware of her mother’s identity until McCorvey tracked her down with the help of The National Enquirer in the late ’80s. The Enquirer’s investigation didn’t name Thornton at the time, but noted that she was a pro-life teenager. Thornton told Prager that in reality though she decided abortion was “not a part of who I was” when she had her own baby at 20, and she balks at both the labels of “pro-life” and “pro-choice.”