The most passionate of all our political debates is about to get a whole new, ugly chapter in it’s long history opened up.
When Norma McCorvey, the anonymous plaintiff in the landmark Roe vs. Wade case, came out against abortion in 1995, it stunned the world and represented a huge symbolic victory for abortion opponents: “Jane Roe” had gone to the other side. For the remainder of her life, McCorvey worked to overturn the law that bore her name.
But it was all a lie, McCorvey says in a documentary filmed in the months before her death in 2017, claiming she only did it because she was paid by antiabortion groups including Operation Rescue.
“I was the big fish. I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they’d put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That’s what I’d say,” she says in “AKA Jane Roe,” which premieres Friday on FX. “It was all an act. I did it well too. I am a good actress.”
In what she describes as a “deathbed confession,” a visibly ailing McCorvey restates her support for reproductive rights in colorful terms: “If a young woman wants to have an abortion, that’s no skin off my ass. That’s why they call it choice.”
Arriving in an election year as the Supreme Court is considering a high-profile abortion case with the potential to undermine Roe vs. Wade and several states across the country have imposed so-called “heartbeat laws” effectively banning the procedure, “AKA Jane Roe” is likely to provoke strong emotions on both sides of this perennial front in the culture wars.
Director Nick Sweeney says his goal was not necessarily to stir controversy, but to create a fully realized portrait of a flawed, fascinating woman who changed the course of American history but felt she was used as a pawn by both sides in the debate.
Still mulling over McCorvey’s confession but “[t]he most passionate of all our political debates” is surely not about abortion, but rather Antonin Scalia’s pronouncement about Chicago deep-dish pizza.Report
I see what you did there. But I stand by my reporting on this issueReport
Au contraire good sir. The most passionate debate is whether “Cincinnati chili” is an actual war crime against the concept of chili or merely an abomination. Because it is accepted by Good People that a giant mushy ball of dough with a gallon of tomato sauce is not pizza.Report
Well, if we’re going to destroy the comity of Ordinary Times over this… then there’s nothing left to do but categorically state that both Chicago Pizza and Cincinnati Chili are divine gifts. And only Frosted Flakes eating troglodytes can’t see that. So ask yourself one question: are you on the side of the Angels or sugar cereals? #throwdown.Report
Sometimes the old, spaghetti covered, order needs to be burnt to the ground. I have it on good authority that good translations of the bible describe the angels eating chili, sans pasta of course, and with beans. #takethattexas.
Chicago pizza….pah….the first word is correct, the second ( insert derisive snort here)Report
Sure, a giant mushy ball of dough with a gallon of sauce is not pizza, but the chicago deep dish is not a giant mushy ball of dough.Report
Why do they hate science?Report
I find it totally unsurprising that she was bought off – and that she viewed it as fulfilling her own agenda. I also find it extremely sad, both that she went down that road, and that the anti-abortion forces felt they had to buy her off to “win.”Report
I can’t decide if this, as well as her 1995 “coming out”, is a big deal, or nothing at all. I never heard about this story until now. Will this change people’s minds about this issue? I kinda think not.
Will this, perhaps, make people aware of how much moneyed interests are pulling strings? That would be nice, but again, probably not.
Feeling a bit pessimistic today, I guess.Report
I was still in Catholic school when her 1995 announcement was made and I can say that at least there and at my parish it was treated as a pretty big deal.Report
Go back to them and you’ll find out it’s not a big deal now. It’s only a thing if it supports my views.Report
I’m probably going to make some enemies here, but it has to be said.
That should be
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I accept thatReport
Apostrophes can be banned for all I care, since it’s all about the context. Just stay away from me, my obtuse definitions, and that cute little comma just back there about 10 words, which is absolutely required to understand the contex…well, uh..I mean Clarity of my sentence.Report
It’s a simple rule, really… it uses its apostrophe counter intuitively. So, its ironic usage could just as easily be written it’s ironic depending on whether we’re looking at the irony of it or noting the essential irony of it. See?
Or is it the other way ’round?Report
ITYM other way round’.Report
I always knew she allegedly became anti-abortion later in life but it never influenced my own pro-choice views. It always struck me as a non-argument that the pro-life especially Christian Evangelical pro-life side loved but seemed largely irrelevant.Report
Another one of those people whom history books will describe as “complicated”.Report