Also.Also.Also: ‘Jane Roe’ From ‘Roe v. Wade’ Got Paid to Change Her Mind on Abortion

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The African American Policy forum is hosting this virtual event, and Rachel found it, and she couldn’t wait to tell you about it: Under the Blacklight: Narrating the Nightmare & (Re)Imagining the Possible. It’s going to be tomorrow (Wednesday, May 20th) at 1:30pm EST/ 10:30am PST. the panel is focusing on a post-Covid world, asking: What could be? What and how are you writing out of this moment? How does your work muscle up our critical and imaginative capacity to engage this world with an eye toward the next one? How dope! Plus also Kimberlé Crenshaw might show up. RSVP here.

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Political Snacks

In a new FX on Hulu documentary, Roe vs. Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey says that her 1995 about-face against abortion “was all an act. I did it well too. I am a good actress.” Here’s more from The Los Angeles Times: The Woman Behind ‘Roe vs. Wade’ Didn’t Change Her Mind on Abortion. She Was Paid.

This news lead to Autostraddle’s Editor-in-Chief, Riese Bernard, dropping a factoid that perhaps everyone else knew about, but I didn’t, and now I will think of nothing else for the rest of the day: Norma McCorvey had a seemingly romantic relationship with a woman, Connie Gonzalez, for 35 years!

Excerpted from her wikipedia: “As Roe v. Wade made its way through the courts, McCorvey began a relationship with Connie Gonzalez. They lived together in Dallas for 35 years. After converting to Christianity, McCorvey continued to live with Gonzalez, though she described their relationship as platonic. Later in life, McCorvey stated that she was no longer a lesbian. McCorvey moved out of the house she shared with Gonzalez in 2006.”

If this is also brand new to you, you can read more here from an 1994 article in the NYT: At Home with Norma McCorvey; Of Roe, Dreams And Choices and The Accidental Activist from 2013 in Vanity Fair.

So anyway, this is obvious but no one should have the right to a control a woman’s body. And Jane Roe knew it.

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen is Autostraddle's Editor-in-Chief and a Black Puerto Rican femme/inist writer. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. There were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. You can find her on twitter, @carmencitaloves.

Carmen has written 692 articles for us.

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