Roe v. Wade involved a 22-year-old Dallas woman named Norma McCorvey, who sued under the pseudonym Jane Roe; Henry Wade, the Dallas County District Attorney responsible for enforcing Texas’s criminal abortion ban; two young Texas lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, who built the constitutional challenge; a handful of additional would-be plaintiffs whose claims were dismissed; and the nine Supreme Court justices who voted 7–2 in January 1973 that the Constitution protects a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy.1Justia. Roe v. Wade – 410 U.S. 113 (1973) Understanding who each of these people was, and what they contributed, explains how a single Texas woman’s situation became one of the most consequential rulings of the 20th century.
Norma McCorvey, the Woman Behind Jane Roe
Norma McCorvey was 22, living in Dallas, and pregnant with her third child when she tried to obtain an abortion in Texas. State law made the procedure a crime unless the mother’s life was in danger, and McCorvey did not have the money to travel to a state where it was legal.1Justia. Roe v. Wade – 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
An adoption attorney she consulted put her in touch with Linda Coffee, a Dallas lawyer already looking for a plaintiff to challenge the Texas statute. Coffee and Sarah Weddington filed suit in 1970 under the pseudonym “Jane Roe” to shield McCorvey’s identity. By the time the Supreme Court issued its ruling in January 1973, McCorvey had given birth and placed the child for adoption. The Court heard the case anyway, recognizing that pregnancy is too short-lived to survive the full appeals process before becoming moot.
Henry Wade, the Named Defendant
Henry Wade was the District Attorney for Dallas County, a post he held for 36 years before retiring in 1987. He was named in the lawsuit because his office had the authority to prosecute anyone who violated the Texas abortion statute.2DocsTeach. Defendant Henry Wade’s Brief in Roe v. Wade Under the Texas Penal Code, performing an abortion carried two to five years in prison, doubled if the procedure was performed without the woman’s consent.3Justia Law. Roe v. Wade – 314 F. Supp. 1217 (N.D. Tex. 1970)
Wade did not personally seek out the case. His name represented the state’s enforcement position. He was already a nationally known figure, having prosecuted Jack Ruby for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
The Other Plaintiffs Who Never Made It
Roe v. Wade is often described as one woman versus one prosecutor, but two other sets of plaintiffs tried to join the challenge and were dismissed.
A married couple identified as John and Mary Doe filed a companion complaint. Mrs. Doe had a medical condition that made pregnancy inadvisable, and the couple argued that if she became pregnant after stopping birth control, they would want access to a legal abortion. The Supreme Court dismissed the Does’ claim as too speculative, resting on a chain of hypothetical events rather than an actual injury.1Justia. Roe v. Wade – 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Dr. James Hallford, a licensed Texas physician facing two state criminal prosecutions for performing abortions, also tried to intervene. The Court held he could raise his constitutional arguments as a defense in the pending criminal cases rather than through a separate federal lawsuit.4Legal Information Institute. Roe v. Wade
The Lawyers Who Argued the Case
Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee for the Plaintiff
Weddington and Coffee were graduates of the University of Texas School of Law and had been classmates there. Coffee clerked for federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes after graduation and brought the procedural experience needed to draft the initial complaint. Weddington was 26 when she first argued the case before the Supreme Court in December 1971. She had never argued in any courtroom before.
The case was argued twice. After the first round, Justice Harry Blackmun concluded his initial draft opinion needed strengthening, and two new justices, Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist, had joined the bench. The Court set the case for reargument in October 1972. Weddington handled both rounds and won before she turned 28.
Jay Floyd and Robert Flowers for Texas
Jay Floyd, an Assistant Attorney General of Texas, argued the state’s position during the first oral argument. Robert Flowers, also an Assistant Attorney General, took over for the reargument.4Legal Information Institute. Roe v. Wade John Tolle, Attorney General Crawford Martin, and several other state officials were listed on the brief. Their task was to defend the Texas abortion statute, a position that failed to persuade seven of the nine justices.
The Nine Supreme Court Justices
Chief Justice Warren Burger assigned the majority opinion to Justice Harry Blackmun, who spent months researching medical history and legal precedent before producing his draft. Blackmun concluded that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”4Legal Information Institute. Roe v. Wade
Six justices joined Blackmun in the majority: Chief Justice Burger and Justices William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan Jr., Potter Stewart, Thurgood Marshall, and Lewis F. Powell Jr.1Justia. Roe v. Wade – 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Justice Byron White and Justice William Rehnquist dissented. White called the decision “an exercise of raw judicial power,” arguing the Court had no constitutional basis to override the policy choices of state legislatures. Rehnquist argued that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment never intended it to protect a right to abortion and that the majority’s framework had no grounding in the Constitution’s text.1Justia. Roe v. Wade – 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
What Happened to Norma McCorvey Afterward
McCorvey stayed largely out of the public eye for years after the ruling. In 1995, she publicly converted to evangelical Protestantism, and later to Catholicism, and joined the anti-abortion movement. She called her involvement in Roe “the biggest mistake of my life” and became a prominent voice in efforts to overturn the decision.
The story shifted again shortly before her death in 2017. In the documentary AKA Jane Roe, filmed during her final days, McCorvey said her anti-abortion activism had been “all an act.” She said evangelical groups had paid her roughly $500,000 over the years to speak against abortion rights. A minister who worked with her during that period confirmed the arrangement on camera, saying he knew the relationship was transactional from the start. Whether the confession or the earlier conversion reflected her true feelings remains unknowable.