The 'Roe' in Roe v. Wade Arrested At Notre Dame *UPDATE*

In 1973, the Supreme Court overturned a Texas interpretation of abortion law and made abortion legal in the United States. Today, the woman at the centre of the case, Jane Roe, was arrested protesting President Obama's pro-choice policies.

In late-1969, early 1970, Norma McCorvey was a pregnant 21-year-old woman with a 9th grade education. She was too poor to get an illegal abortion in Texas and too poor to travel to California to get a legal one. In March of 1970, Ms. McCorvey filed a lawsuit seeking to have the Texas law prohibiting her from having an abortion overturned. The Texas court threw out McCorvey's case and reaffirmed Texas law. In the meantime, McCorvey ended up giving birth to her child and put it up for adoption. Court records indicate that McCorvey was "forced" to give birth because of how long the case took and the length of the decision-making process. Even though she had given birth and did not need an abortion, McCorvey filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision in the Roe v. Wade case was handed down in January 1973 and it said that in her early months of pregnancy, a woman could choose to have an abortion without any restriction, and in later months of pregnancy, with some restrictions. Today, thirty-six years after that judgement, Norma McCorvey was arrested for trespassing at Notre Dame University near South Bend, Indiana. McCorvey and other protesters were there to protest the fact that the Catholic institution was giving President Barack Obama an honorary degree, after Obama delivers the commencement speech to the graduating class on Sunday. The day before her arrest, McCorvey told FoxNews why she was heading for Notre Dame:

I'm coming because I want to show Mr. Obama that I'm not in favor his pro-abortion stance. I'm a peaceful protester, but if they come and take me away, they'll just come and take me away.

Kind of ironic that the candidate for the first legal abortion in Texas, is alive today, and is an almost 40-year-old woman, doing who knows what, who knows where and that her birth mother, is out there protesting what she set in motion in the first place. UPDATE & CORRECTION: Please see Bart Bart B. Van Bockstaele comment #7 below, link here. AIP correcting story, McCorvey not arrested.