SAN ANTONIO, TX -- As President Bush signs legislation banning "partial-birth abortion," Sandra Cano, who was Mary Doe in Doe v. Bolton, and Norma McCorvey, who was "Jane Roe" in Roe v. Wade, are rejoicing and deeply thankful. They commend President Bush and the Congress for their efforts to put an end to the inhumane killing of babies during the birth process, just seconds from life.
Cano said, "I am deeply thankful to President Bush and Congress for undoing an unjust ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court that I had an unwilling part in," a sentiment passionately echoed by McCorvey. "This is an historic day for us," said McCorvey.
U.S. Supreme Court rulings in McCorvey and Cano's 1973 cases brought legalized abortion on demand to America. It was Cano's case that struck down trimester limitations on abortion and that ultimately led to "partial-birth abortion," a procedure called "gruesome" and "horrible" by some Supreme Court Justices. See Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914, 946, 953 (2000). (Steven, J., concurring and referring to the "gruesome nature of late-term abortion" and Scalia, J., dissenting and stating this "method of killing a human child ... is so horrible that the most clinical description of it evokes a shudder of revulsion.")
When Cano understood that she had been used by her attorney to legalize abortion, she was devastated. Originally, Cano had sought legal aid because she wanted a divorce. She never sought nor wanted an abortion. When her attorney arranged one for her, she fled from Atlanta to Oklahoma to avoid it. Cano said her attorney deceived her to pursue an agenda.
"My case was based upon fraud and deception," said Cano, who has spent years trying to rectify what she considers an injustice to her, women and unborn babies. "I did not want abortion. I would not want to kill babies," she said. "Partial birth abortion is wrong, and it should be called murder since the baby is killed with all but its head already outside the mother," she added. "It is murder in my opinion," she said.
McCorvey sought but never had an abortion. After working in an abortion facility, she changed her mind about abortion and now leads a ministry called Roe No More. Both McCorvey and Cano are represented by the The Justice Foundation in legal efforts to overturn the rulings in their landmark cases. In motions filed in federal courts to reverse Roe and Doe last summer, The Justice Foundation submitted over 1,000 affidavits from women who have been injured by abortion and deeply regret their decisions to abort their babies -- see http://www.txjf.org for press information on these cases.
