Norma McCorvey (left) with attorney Gloria Allred in 1989. (Photo from Billboard)
In Hulu’s new documentary “AKA Jane Roe,” Lake Highlands resident Norma McCorvey gives a firsthand account of her role as “Jane Roe” in the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion. Our neighbor was on the other side.
Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade lived in Lakewood, and his children went to Woodrow Wilson High School. He served as district attorney for more than 30 years and is known for prosecuting Jack Ruby in the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald.
In 1970, McCorvey anonymously became the plaintiff in the case against Wade to legalize abortion.
McCorvey became pregnant for a third time in 1969 with no money to travel somewhere where abortion was legal, the Dallas Morning News reported. The case made it to the Supreme Court, but the decision that states cannot ban abortion laws did not occur until 1973. She never had an abortion, and by the time the case was over, McCorvey had given her child up for adoption. Shortly after, McCorvey revealed her identity.
Wade died in 2001 at an assisted-living center in Dallas. He was 86.
