Do the names Norma McCorvey or Sarah Weddington mean anything to you? I confess I have known who Norma McCorvey is for several years, but Sarah Weddington was unknown to me. That is no longer true. If you do not know these women and abortion is an important issue for you, you should get acquainted.

Last year Planned Parenthood of Montana hosted Sarah Weddington as the keynote speaker at their 5th annual fundraiser. They could have chosen no one more representative of its pro-abortion philosophy than she. Weddington is not just a hero to pro-abortionists she is the hero. It was she who successfully argued the Roe v. Wade case before the Supreme Court. The result was the legalization of abortion on January 22nd, 1973. That was an impressive accomplishment particularly when one considers Weddington was 26 at the time.

How was she able to persuade the highest court in the land that women had a constitutional right to kill their unborn babies? Part of the answer is her exceptional intelligence. She graduated from high school at the age of 16 and graduated from law school at 21. Those are no small feats. But her intelligence alone does not fully explain her success at winning what has arguably been the most contentious judicial decision of the 20th century. She needed a case that would vividly portray what the pro-abortionists argued was the danger of illegal abortions and the injustice of a legal system that would not allow girls and women autonomy over their own bodies. Enter Norma McCorvey the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade.

In 1969 at 22 years of age, divorced, and pregnant by her boyfriend, McCorvey wanted to get an abortion. But there was a problem. In Texas where she lived abortion was illegal except to save the life of the mother. Nevertheless, she was put in touch with two attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee. McCorvey met with them at a restaurant in Dallas believing they would help her obtain an abortion. She told them her pregnancy was the result of a gang rape. (She later confessed this was a lie.) Weddington and Coffee determined she would be a good plaintiff to challenge Texas’ abortion law. But the lawyers did not have McCorvey’s best interest in mind.

According to McCorvey’s sworn affidavit dated March 15th, 2000 she said, “The young lawyers told me that they had spoken with two or three other women about being in the case, but they didn’t fit their criteria. Although I did know what ‘criteria’ meant, I asked them if I had what it is that it took to be in their suit. They said yes, ‘You’re white. You’re young, pregnant, and you want an abortion.’ At that time, I didn’t know their full intent. Only that they wanted to make abortion legal and they thought I’d be a good plaintiff…I came for the food, and they led me to believe that they could help me get an abortion.” Weddington’s feminist agenda combined with her intelligence and a poor, uneducated woman supposedly impregnated by rape proved to be a winning combination for the pro-abortion advocates. The holocaust of legalized abortion would soon be unleashed upon America.

For a time McCorvey remained anonymous, known only as Jane Roe. And that was fine with Weddington. McCorvey’s lifestyle as an abrasive, alcoholic drug user that “could out-cuss the most crass of men and women” as well as being engaged in lesbianism, embarrassed the pro-abortion elite which was epitomized by Weddington. But McCorvey tired of living with the lies Roe v. Wade was founded upon. By 1989 she had gone public with the secrets she had buried within her heart.

This new openness expressed itself by her wanting to take an active role in the pro-abortion movement. However, her desire to be a visible force in this movement was unwelcome by the pro-abortion elite and was met with resistance. In 1989 McCorvey was prevented from speaking at a major Washington march commemorating the Roe v. Wade decision. In 1993 she was not invited to the White House to celebrate its 20th anniversary. In an interview in 2001 McCorvey said, “Even after the case, I was never respected – probably because I was not an ivy-league educated, liberal feminist like they were.”

This rancorous relationship intensified in 1995 when McCorvey became a Christian. She became as staunchly pro-life as she had been pro-abortion. Weddington’s response to this change of allegiance was: “All Jane Roe did was sign a one-page affidavit. She was pregnant and didn’t want to be. That was her total involvement in the case.” Weddington was not interested in McCorvey. She just needed her signature.

Is Weddington a hero? Over 45 million unborn babies killed at the hands of the abortionists she empowered silently scream, “No!”