DOE & ROE
Most of us know Roe, Jane Roe (Norma McCorvey), from the case Roe v. Wade. Roe's legal challenges to the abortion law of Texas led to Supreme Court to overturn the abortion laws in all 50 states and to create the so-called "right" to an abortion. It is important to note that when McCorvey became pregnant in 1970, she tried to have an illegal abortion in Dallas. Finding no one, she sought legal counsel, who referred her to two young women who were recent law-school grads. They talked of bringing a case to the State to legalize abortion. Nothing happened immediately, and McCorvey, with two young children already, gave birth to a boy on June 2, 1970, and gave her child up for adoption. Later on, the lawyers called up McCorvey to bring a case to the State, even though she had delivered her child already. The very basis of our abortion laws today are based on a lie: McCorvey was paid to lie under oath and say her pregnancy was the result of a rape, which it was not. In the early 1990's, McCorvey realized the errors of her way, and publicly admitted to the lies. She is now a woman who is pro-life.
Few people realize that Roe v. Wade has a "twin": Doe v. Bolton. Mary Doe is the fictitious name of the person, Sandra Cano, whose case challenging the abortion law in Georgia was decided on the same day as Roe v. Wade. These two cases were considered together as companion cases by the Supreme Court.
While Roe v. Wade established the legality of abortion, it allowed that abortions could be restricted during the last three months of pregnancy unless the life of health of the mother were at stake. In Doe v. Bolton, the Court defined "health" as encompassing: "all factors-physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age-relevant to the well-being of the patient." Doe not only defines the exception to the rule allowing restrictions on late term abortions-it is the exception that swallowed the rule. Doe means abortion on demand, even during the last weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion advocates like to claim there is no such thing as an abortion on demand in the United States because, except when a woman's health or life is endangered, Roe allows for restrictions on third-trimester abortions. But this claim misleads because it ignores Doe v. Bolton. By defining health broadly, Doe required that abortion be available for any reason and at any time during pregnancy.
In June 1983, ten years after the Doe v. Bolton decision, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee issued a report showing the real outcome of the Roe and Doe decisions-unrestricted abortion on demand:
"The Senate Judiciary Committee observes that no significant legal barrier of any kind whatsoever exists today in the United States for a woman to obtain an abortion during any stage of her pregnancy." ____________________________________________________________________________________________