Effort to Reverse Roe Will Press Ahead
Effort to Reverse Roe Will Press Ahead
The campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade will press ahead, as Norma McCorvey–the former “Jane Roe” of the U.S. Supreme Court case legalizing abortion–appeals a judge’s dismissal of a motion asking the Supreme Court to revisit her case.
On June 17, McCorvey filed a “motion for relief from judgment” asking the court to look at new evidence that abortion harms women and reconsider their ruling that legalized abortion. Federal District Judge David Godbey ruled on June 19 that too much time had passed since the 1973 decision and that “it is simply too late now, thirty years after the fact, for McCorvey to revisit that judgment.”
Allan Parker of the Justice Foundation, the Texas-based organization representing McCorvey, questioned whether Godbey had time to read through the more than 5,000 pages of evidence–the largest ever collected body of sworn evidence about the negative effects of abortion–filed in support of their case. McCorvey is now appealing Godbey’s ruling to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
As a party to the original litigation, McCorvey had the right to ask the court to look at new evidence and changes in the law that make the ruling “no longer just,” said Alan Parker of the Texas- based Justice Foundation, which is handling her case.
If the Supreme Court were to grant the motion, the result would be “to set aside and annul Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, its companion case,” Parker said. “This would return the issue of protecting women and children to the people with ‘Baby Moses’ laws serving as a safety net.”
One of the factors considered in Roe was that women were burdened with caring for “unwanted” children, but “Baby Moses” laws in Texas and other states now allow women who are unable to care for their newborn children to leave them at hospitals or other safe places with no questions asked.
This change in law is one of the arguments that Parker hopes to present before Godbey. The evidence also includes new research findings about the physical and psychological dangers of abortion to women, including affidavits from Elliot Institute director Dr. David Reardon and Dr. Theresa Burke of Rachel’s Vineyard, who co-wrote the book Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion.
How You Can Help
The Justice Foundation is also planning to file other cases in their attempt to get the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. They have already collected more than 1,000 affidavits from post-abortive women, and other women who have had abortions are also being urged to file affidavits.
More information can be found at www.operationoutcry.org or by calling (210) 614-7157. Legal documents, research, some affidavits, and other supporting information can be found on the web site.
