The Family Roe - An American Story

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A masterpiece of reporting on the Supreme Court's most divisive case, Roe v. Wade, and the unknown lives at its heart. Despite her famous pseudonym, "Jane Roe," the truth about Norma McCorvey (1947-2017) remains largely unknown. Journalist Joshua Prager spent hundreds of hours with Norma, uncovered her personal papers, and witnessed her final moments. This narrative presents her life in full, shaped by the crosscurrents of sex, religion, gender, and class, illustrating the story of abortion in America. Prager begins on the banks of Louisiana's Atchafalaya River, where Norma was born into a cycle of unplanned pregnancies. A pregnancy transformed her life, leading the Dallas waitress to become Jane Roe. Drawing on a decade of research, Prager reveals the woman behind the pseudonym, detailing her life from sex work in Dallas to her thoughts on family and abortion, and her relationships with feminist and Christian leaders, as well as the three daughters she placed for adoption. He found those women, including the youngest—Baby Roe—now fifty years old, sharing her story for the first time. The narrative is rich with revelations about Norma, her children, and the broader "family" connected to the case, including activists and bystanders. Prager introduces key figures like feminist lawyer Linda Coffee, abortion provider Curtis Boyd, and pro-life leader Mildred Jefferson, creating an epic work that spans fifty years of American histor