Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, the woman whose conception led to the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case, has revealed herself publicly for the first time as the "Roe baby.". He, too, had been adopted. "Norma was pro-choice, and it seemed to Shelley that to have an abortion would render her no different than Norma," Prager wrote. We left the restaurant saying, We dont want any part of this, Shelley told me. Supreme Court abortion ruling updates: Americans can get abortions in Though she was still against abortion, she said she had reservations about the group's confrontational style. Norma had told her own story in two autobiographies, but she was an unreliable narrator. Then, as Hanft would later recount, she told Shelley that her mother was famousbut not a movie star or a rich person. Rather, her birth mother was connected to a national case that had changed law. There was much more to say, and Hanft asked Shelley if she would meet with her and her business partner. A decade later, in 1981, Norma briefly volunteered for the National Organization for Women in Dallas. "I told her I would never, ever thank her for not aborting me.". They soared on swings, unaware that happy playgrounds had always made Norma ache for themthe daughters she had let go. It could well overturn Roe. Thornton said prior to learning who her mother was, she had not really considered abortion, saying it was a non-thing in her adopted family. Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in Roe v.. She graduated from Highline High School in 1988 . Though the Supreme Court ultimately decided three years after she filed her lawsuit that all women should have access to legal abortions, McCorvey had already been forced to carry her pregnancy to term, had given birth to Thornton and had let another family adopt her newborn. Shelley Lynn Thornton: What we know about the Roe v. Wade Baby By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided that the constitutional right to privacy applied to abortion. 'Nazi gold' turns out to be a WW2 bullet and a pair of muddy boots: Hunt for lost loot hidden in Dutch 'I'm no deadbeat dad!' Shelley determined that she would have the baby. Afterwards, Thornton spoke to McCorvey on the phone. If the court decides in favor of the state, Roe v. Wade will effectively be overturned. Jane Roe, whose victory in the Roe v. Wade lawsuit affirmed the . She had occasional affairs with men and a brief marriage at age 16. Shelley had long considered abortion wrong, but her connection to Roe had led her to reexamine the issue. And that's all it was. Hanft and Fitz had a question for Shelley: Was she pro-choice or pro-life? Her birth mother's lawsuit became the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that secured the right for women to legally have an abortion across the country, even though she never went through with the procedure. Also referred to by the pseudonym "Roe Baby", Thornton is the child at the center of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade.