A rchive Date
[ 06-08-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1962096
Court dismisses McCorvey's request to reopen Roe v. Wade
June 21, 2003, 12:31AM
Associated Press
DALLAS - A federal district court has dismissed a request by the former plaintiff known as "Jane Roe" to reconsider the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion 30 years ago.
Norma McCorvey, who joined the anti-abortion fight 10 years ago, filed the "motion for relief from judgment" Tuesday, asking the court to reopen Roe v. Wade and conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into scientific and anecdotal evidence she says shows abortion hurts women.
The court dismissed McCorvey's request late Thursday, saying it wasn't made within a "reasonable time" after the 1973 judgment.
"Whether or not the Supreme Court was infallible, its Roe decision was certainly final in this litigation," Judge David Godbey wrote in the ruling. "It is simply too late now, 30 years after the fact, for McCorvey to revisit that judgment."
McCorvey's attorney, Allan Parker, said his client will likely ask the court to reconsider its ruling.
"I think the judge has misunderstood the case," Parker said. "This is not a case of newly discovered evidence, which must be brought in a short amount of time. It's a case of changed factual conditions and law."
The changed law, Parker said, is the so-called "Baby Moses" act, which Texas pioneered in 1999, that allows the state to assume responsibility for unwanted children. Parker said the burden on women raising unwanted children was one of the determining factors in the Supreme Court's decision to legalize abortion, but since that factor no longer exists in as many as 40 "Baby Moses" states, Roe v. Wade should be reconsidered.
Sarah Weddington, the abortion rights activist and attorney who originally represented McCorvey, said she was delighted, but not surprised McCorvey's request was dismissed.
"It never should have been filed," Weddington said Friday morning. "Those who filed it got publicity but the publicity actually has been very helpful for those of us who believe the government should not be involved."
McCorvey and her attorneys asked the federal court to consider more than 5,400 pages of evidence, including 1,000 affidavits from women who regret their abortions, in re-evaluating the Supreme Court's decision.
The Supreme Court decision came after McCorvey had the baby. It was the third child McCorvey put up for adoption; she was a 21-year-old carnival worker at the time.
McCorvey publicly identified herself as Jane Roe in 1980. She later embraced Christianity and shocked the abortion rights community in 1995 by joining the group Operation Rescue.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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