January 20, 2005

NEWS UPDATE

Will Roe v Wade Be Overturned?

(by Rick Marschall, Managing Editor, Rare Jewel Magazine)

Readers of Rare Jewel Magazine will have a front-row seat to one of the most explosive developments in one of the most momentous issues of contemporary American society, when, in the upcoming “Sanctity of Life” theme-issue, the two central figures in the movement to overturn Roe v Wade share their thoughts, prayers, and strategies in exclusive interviews.

This week, on January 18, those two figures -- Norma McCorvey, the original “Jane Roe” around whom the landmark Supreme Court case legalizing abortion was built in 1973; and attorney Allan Parker, whose Justice Foundation has mounted the skillful motions to overturn Roe -- filed their motion, and rallied supports on the steps of, the same Supreme Court in Washington DC that opened the floodgates to approximately 45-million abortions over the past 32 years.

"This is the day I've longed for," said McCorvey, who is now a committed Christian and has come to regret her role in the case. In addition to the aborted babies, she said, "we know so much more about matters of health and emotional effects on the mothers, and I plead with the Court to listen to the witnesses and re-evaluate Roe v Wade. It was a dreadful day in America when the Supreme Court allowed a woman to kill her own child…. With each child aborted, there is another tragedy: the harm to the mother.”

McCorvey, standing in the bitter January weather of the nation’s capital, said: "I long for the day that justice will be done and the burden from all of these deaths will be removed from my shoulders….  I want to do everything in my power to help women and their children. The issue is justice for women, justice for the unborn, and justice for what is right. America is slowly dying of a holocaust of abortion that began with Roe v Wade. "The “Former Jane Roe” -- the only reference she makes these days to her infamous onetime celebrity -- said she was deceived and manipulated by abortion proponents who needed a test case to challenge the prevailing law in the early ‘70s. Despite the fact that her case ended up serving as the legal justification for abortion, McCorvey, ironically, did not abort her own child.

Besides the support for the legal action, and the commemoration of Roe’s anniversary (on January 22), Rare Jewel Magazine is one of many Christian and patriotic allies in this cause. Thousands of petitions (testifying to the physical horrors to mothers and babies, and emotional traumas to mothers and families) accompanied the motion; supporters appeared with Norma McCorvey on Tuesday; and attorney Allan Parker made a strong case, explaining his devotion and tactics.

“We’re asking the Court to find, based on the changed legal and factual conditions, that it would be a grave injustice to continue Roe v Wade,” Parker said. Federal rules allow a court’s ruling to be vacated when an original plaintiff alleges that factual and legal changes occurring during intervening years neutralize, or reverse, the justice-claims of the first decision. “Norma has presented over 5,300 pages of significant, sufficient, and compelling evidence of substantial changes in factual and legal conditions," Parker said.

Parker said his goal is not to have the court criminalize abortion, but to make it an issue for the individual states to decide. He added that if people hear the stories his witnesses tell, they will oppose abortion.

Parker and McCorvey (now 57) were accompanied by a group on the Supreme Court steps, including Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr. "My uncle once said, 'The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety,'" Alveda King, who had an abortion earlier in her own life, said. "Don't just think about yourself, think about others."

This week’s Court filing and rally were ironic counterpoints to inauguration festivities in other parts of the nation’s capital, as well as speculation concerning the possible retirement and replacement of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. In addition, on Monday, January 24, hundreds of thousands of pro-life advocates will gather in Washington D.C. for the 32nd annual March for Life.

The Rare Jewel Magazine  “Sanctity of Life” issue, dated January/February 2005, will also feature two dozen essays, interviews, and articles, including pieces by Ronald Reagan, Dr Bernard Nathanson (“father” of the abortion mills,” also now a Christian), Steve Forbes, Doug Phillips, survivors of abortions, and fighters in pro-life causes.