The Justice Foundation, founded in 1993, seeks to protect the fundamental freedoms and rights essential to the preservation of American society by providing free legal services to promote those rights.
To restore proper respect for God’s word and law to American jurisprudence, and thus restore righteousness, justice, mercy and a proper respect for God to the nation.
To pray, litigate, educate and advocate for life, liberty and justice.
The Testimony of Sandra Cano the “Doe” of Doe v. Bolton
My name is Sandra Cano, and I reside in Georgia. I am competent to make this affidavit. I have personal knowledge of the facts stated herein and the following is true and correct.
In the early nineteen seventies, I was the woman designated as Mary Doe, the plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe v. Wade. Although the courts understood that Mary Doe was not my real name, what the courts did not know was that, contrary to the facts recited in my affidavit at the time, I neither wanted nor sought an abortion. I was nothing but a symbol in Doe v. Bolton with my experience and circumstances discounted and misrepresented. During oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court one of the Justices stated that it did not matter whether I was a real or fictitious person. This is where the Court was so very wrong. It did matter. I was a real person, and I did not want an abortion. Abortion is just like Doe v. Bolton. It discounts the real experiences of the mothers. It misrepresents that abortion is for them. Just as Mary Doe’s true desires were hidden from the courts by those promoting abortion, so, too, have the real facts about abortion been hidden.
Sandra Race Bensing was my real name in that year. I was in my early twenties and pregnant with my fourth child when I first met the Doe v. Bolton attorney, Margie Pitts Hames. I had gone to legal aid to get a divorce and to find an attorney to help me regain custody of my two children. My husband was not supporting us, and we had to live at the Salvation Army. At times we lived with my mother, but my stepfather did not want us there. I loved my children, but I could not care for them financially.
I was a trusting person and did not read the papers placed in front of me by my lawyer. I truly thought Margie Pitts Hames was having me sign divorce papers. I did not even suspect that the papers related to abortion until one afternoon when my mother and my lawyer told me that my suitcase was packed to go to a hospital, and that they had scheduled an abortion for the next day. They advised me that my doctor was going to perform an abortion. I told both my mother and my lawyer that I would not have an abortion. Not then. Not ever. They persisted in their demands upon me.
When the demand for an abortion persisted, I fled to Oklahoma and stayed at the home of my ex-husband’s grandmother. I remained there until my mother and lawyer assured me that they would cease their pressuring me to have an abortion. I was relieved that the ordeal was ended. Because they promised never to force me to have an abortion, I returned to Georgia.
My lawyer sent me a plane ticket so I could return. She wanted me to be in a courtroom with other pregnant mothers. The night before I went to court, my mother and my lawyer expressed concern that I would leave again, and so they had me stay at the apartment of a legal aid lawyer. Before the court appearance, I was told by my lawyer not to say anything in court. As a result, I never did say anything in court.
My predicament made it difficult for me to take care of my children, but I did not need an abortion. I needed help, but all of the people around me—my husband, my mother, and my lawyer—refused to help me with my children. Instead of real help, my mother, stepfather, and my lawyer persisted in their demands that I have an abortion. Those demands were made for themselves so they would not be burdened. It was, in my mind, a demand for what they thought was the easiest way for them to get out from under any obligation to help my new baby and me. But the abortion was not in my interest. I was the mother of a baby for whom I was responsible. I had a natural desire to have my baby and to raise her. I carried my child to full term and gave birth. Because no one would help me, I felt compelled to surrender my rights and give my baby up for adoption.
One day, my mother and stepfather called me into their bedroom. Their television was on. They shouted to me excitedly, “Look! You won! You won!” Margie Pitts Hames was on television and the story reported that the United States Supreme Court had made abortion legal. At that time, I did not fully comprehend what my role was in the Court’s decision in Doe v. Bolton.
Over the years, I gained a greater and greater sense that I was wrongfully used in Doe v. Bolton. A number of years ago, I decided that I wanted to see my file in the case so I could see what was said about me. I went to the courthouse to see my records, which were under seal. An attorney, Wendell Bird, agreed to represent me and he asked that my records in my case be unsealed. I produced my driver’s license, my birth certificate, and my marriage certificate. The attorney who represented me in Doe v. Bolton, Margie Pitts Hames, tried to stop me from getting my own records, and I did not understand why.
It was only when I first saw the opened records in Doe v. Bolton that I understood why Margie did not want me to see them. The records stated that I applied for an abortion, was turned down, and, as a result, sued the state of Georgia. According to the records, I had applied for an abortion through a panel of doctors and nurses at a state-funded hospital. That was a false statement. After reading the court records, I contacted the hospital and tried to obtain my records. At first I was told there were records, but when my new attorney sent his legal assistant to review them, we were told that they did not exist. The hospital said they had no records. I never sought an abortion there or anywhere else.
At times, I have been forced to reflect upon the events that led up to the day when my mother and stepfather told me about the Supreme Court decision in Doe v. Bolton. My life was in disarray. I was having my fourth child, but no responsible husband or real place to live. I was uneducated. When I came back from Oklahoma, I was so relieved that no one was going to pressure me to have an abortion that I took part in a court proceeding without understanding what was really happening. I was used wrongly, but I did not inquire enough. In retrospect, there were big signs which revealed what was happening.
Once a television man came to Margie’s office and I was asked what I thought of abortion. I told him that I did not believe in abortion and I did not want an abortion. I also said I did not care if anyone else had an abortion, that it was not my business. All I cared about, at that time, was that I did not want an abortion. I was not thinking of the other women. I did not understand that I was involved in a case that sought to legalize abortion. I was naïve. In retrospect, perhaps, I could have discovered what was going on. But I was in a crisis. I depended on my mother’s help. My lawyer became upset with me because I would never say to anyone that I would have an abortion.
Many years later, when I saw the unsealed records in my case, I could not believe what the certification filed in my name said. I am certain the signature on the affidavit that said I wanted an abortion was not mine. I never saw that affidavit until the records were unsealed. If it was my signature, it was obtained without my knowing the contents of the affidavit. I had fled to Oklahoma to avoid an abortion. My lawyer knew I would never say I wanted one. The only reason I went to a lawyer was to get my children back. My predicament was used to argue that my new baby’s life should be terminated.
I have often rethought how my involvement in Doe v. Bolton came about. Over the years it has haunted me. I never had an abortion, but I know what it is like to feel responsible for one. I know what it is like to feel like a mother who helped terminate the life of her own child. After Doe v. Bolton was decided and I was told about my involvement, I felt responsible for the experiences to which the mothers and babies were being subjected. In a way, I felt that I was involved in the abortions, that I was somehow responsible for the lives of the children and the experiences of their mothers. I have felt that experience that the death of a child is my fault, the helplessness the mother feels as events occur around her without any power to stop them, and the guilt that is associated with being told by the courts and society that the child’s death was performed for the mother and only the mother.
This last assertion, that abortion is performed for the mother, is the cruelest misrepresentation of all. My own circumstance, the one used to justify legal abortion in the first place, is a perfect example of this reality. There were many doctors, clinics, and others who were plaintiffs in Doe v. Bolton. As Mary Doe, I was the only pregnant mother who was a plaintiff. All of these other people—the doctors, nurses, and clinics—were using the Court to do what they thought was in my interest. They pressured the Court claiming I needed the right to terminate the life of my own child. It was their solution, not mine. They claimed they did it out of compassion for me. But it was a false compassion. A true compassion would result in the fathers living up to their responsibilities. A true compassion, once a mother is in the predicament that the child’s father abandoned her, would advise her how to get help and would provide her help. Unfortunately, the legal right to an abortion was sought in my case because others thought it was too hard for them to give me real help. The abortion was sought for them, not for me.
But no matter how hard life happens to be, no one has the right to kill a baby, especially the baby’s mother. She is the trustee of her child’s life. She, of all people, has the sacred duty to protect the child. But the child’s interests are not at odds with her own. They are in concert with one another. The mother derives a great benefit from her relationship with her child. It is as beneficial to her as it is the child. It is never in the interest of a mother to terminate the life of her own child.
I have been forced to live with the consequence of this false compassion for too long for me not to bring to the attention of the Court the fact that abortion is not in a woman’s interest, and the fact that legalization of abortion began with manipulations and misrepresentations. Too many women who lost their children through abortion have told me of their emptiness, their sadness, the void in their lives, and how others forced them to have abortions and then blamed the abortion on the mother.
The experience of Doe v. Bolton must be understood and accounted for, not simply to correct the record in my own case, but to correct the law of abortion in general. Abortion is not in the interest of a mother. It is a false solution imposed upon a mother by others.
Doe v. Bolton and my circumstances were misused. Doe v. Bolton was a fraud upon the court. Doe v. Bolton was a secret case about abortion, which is a secret procedure. This secrecy allows others to prevail upon the mother and others can act against her interest. Women have told me how they were forced to have an abortion against their will. If it was alleged that I spoke for other women in Doe v. Bolton, then I gladly speak for other women in this case to say that abortion is too coercive by nature, too much the will of others, too much the will of a society which finds abortion more convenient for it than a commitment to the well-being of the mother and the child.
The real experiences of the women must be known and taken into consideration by the court. Abortion is too much what others would like a woman to do, rather than what is in her interest and what she really wants. Others told the court that I wanted an abortion. The law has developed, in part, based upon what my lawyer claimed I wanted, and that abortion was in my interest. I feel I have the duty to tell this Court the truth about what I really thought then, and what I think now. As the plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton, I have a very substantial interest in the litigation before this court in the matter of Roe v. Wade, and I can provide the court a unique perspective of the Doe v. Bolton case not available from any other source. In those years the people closest to me successfully manipulated my circumstances to justify abortion and wanted me to have an abortion, but I refused. Today this Court has the opportunity to review not just the real facts surrounding Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the original abortion decisions, but the testimony of hundreds of women who have real, true experiences with abortion, and not perpetuate the Doe v. Bolton fraud upon the Court.
The Testimony of Norma McCorvey the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade
My name is Norma McCorvey and I reside in Dallas Texas. I am competent to make this affidavit. The facts stated in this affidavit are within my personal knowledge and are true and correct.
Thirty three years ago I came before the United States District Court Northern District of Texas Dallas Division as the Plaintiff Jane Roe the young woman whose case legalized abortion in the United States Roe v Wade. At that time I was an uninformed young woman. Today I am a fifty five year old woman who knows the tragedy that arose from my unsuspecting acquiescence in allowing my life to be used to legalize abortion.
At that time I told this Court in the form of an affidavit that I desired to obtain an abortion never really understanding the ramifications. Today I once again appear before this Court in the form of an affidavit to present evidence never presented in my earlier case but today I come with a complete understanding of what my participation in Roe v Wade has brought to this country. My personal experience with this three decade abortion experiment has compelled me to come forward not only for myself and the women I represented then but for those women whom I now represent. It is my participation in this case that began the tragedy and it is with great hope that I now seek to end the tragedy I began.
Because of my role in Roe v Wade and my subsequent experience with abortion this Court will be provided with information and a perspective unavailable from other sources. Previously the courts without looking into my true circumstances or taking the time to decide the real impact abortion would have upon women used me my life and my circumstances to justify abortion. Those judges who made the earlier decisions never had the advantage of the real facts to base their decision because the entire basis for Roe v Wade was built upon false assumptions. Consequently the decision was rendered in a vacuum totally devoid of findings of facts and solely based upon what abortion advocates wanted women. Because the courts allowed my case to proceed without my testimony without ever explaining to me the reality of abortion without being cross examined on my erroneous perception of abortion a tragic mistake was made a mistake that this Court has the opportunity to remedy.
The years following the Roe v Wade decision have been very difficult in a number of respects but my life was never easy. Prior to my pregnancy with the Roe baby I gave birth to two other children. My first a daughter was adopted by my mother. It was difficult to part with my child yet I have always been comforted by the fact that my daughter is alive. My second daughter was raised by her father a young intern at Baylor Methodist Medical School. He wanted to get married and make a home but I was not ready for that kind of commitment. Later when I became pregnant with the Roe baby I was really in a predicament. My mother expressed her disapproval and told me how irresponsible I had been. She made it clear that she was not going to take care of another baby.
Although I knew I was pregnant I waited for a while before I went to the doctor. While I was waiting to be examined I questioned some of the ladies in the waiting room about whether they knew where a woman could go to have an abortion. A lady told me where an illegal clinic was located and told me that it would cost two hundred and fifty dollars. Following our discussion I told the doctor that I wanted to have an abortion but he refused stating that abortion was illegal. He did not believe in abortion and gave me the phone number of an adoption attorney.
When I had saved about two hundred dollars I took a cross town bus to the illegal clinic which turned out to be a dentist office that had been closed down the previous week. For some reason I felt relieved yet angry at the same time. All my emotions were peaking first I was angry then I was happy and then I cried. From the abortion clinic I took the bus to my dads apartment and decided to speak with the adoption attorney. The attorney set up the meeting and referred me to Sarah Weddington the attorney who represented me in Roe v Wade.
Following the adoption attorney introduction Weddington invited me out to dinner. Although Weddington and I were about the same age our lives were quite different. She was a young attorney and I was homeless and lived in a park. Unconcerned about politics I sold flowers and an underground newspaper that described the types and availability of illegal narcotics. At the time I simply sought to survive. During our initial meeting I met with Sarah Weddington and her friend Linda Coffee. Both Weddington and Coffee had recently finished law school and they wanted to bring a class action suit against the State of Texas to legalize abortion.
During our meeting they questioned me Norma dont you think that abortion should be legal Unsure I responded that I did not know. In fact I did not know what the term abortion really meant. Back then no one discussed abortion. It was taboo and so too was the subject of abortion. The only thing I knew about the word was in the context of war movies. I had heard the word abort when John Wayne was flying his plane and ordered the others to abort the mission. I knew abort meant that they were going back. Abortion to me meant going back to the condition of not being pregnant. I never looked the word up in the dictionary until after I had already signed the affidavit. I was very naive. For their part my lawyers lied to me about the nature of abortion. Weddington convinced me It is just a piece of tissue. You just missed your period. I did not know during the Roe v Wade case that the life of a human being was terminated.
That evening the two female lawyers and I discussed the case over a few pitchers of beer and pizza at a small restaurant in Dallas. Weddington Coffee and I were drinking beer and trying to come up with a pseudonym for me. I had heard that whenever women were having illegal abortions they would not carry any identification with them. An unidentifiable woman was often referred to as Jane Doe. So we were trying to come up with something that would rhyme with Doe. After several pitchers of beer we started with the letter a and eventually reached Roe. Then I asked What about Jane for the first name Janie used to be my imaginary friend as a child. I told them about her and how she always wanted to do good things for people and it was decided I became Jane Roe by the stroke of a pen.
These young lawyers told me that they had spoken with other women about being in the case but they did not fit their criteria. Although I did not know what criteria meant I asked them if I had what it took to be in their suit. They replied Yes. You are white. You are young pregnant and you want an abortion. At that time I did not know their full intent only that they wanted to make abortion legal and they thought I would be a good plaintiff. I came for the food and they led me to believe that they could help me get an abortion.
After our meeting I went to my fathers apartment and began to drink alcohol heavily. I was depressed with my plight in life. I tried to drown my troubles in alcohol. Shortly thereafter I even attempted suicide by slitting my wrists. When my father questioned me about what was troubling me I responded that I was pregnant again. When he asked me what I was going to do I responded that I was thinking about having an abortion. He inquired What is that I said I do not know I have not looked it up yet.
Later Weddington and Coffee presented the affidavit for my signature at Coffee office. I told them that I trusted them and that I did not need to read the affidavit before I signed it. I never read the affidavit before signing it and do not to this very day know what is written in the affidavit. Both Weddington and Coffee were aware that I did not read the affidavit before I signed it. At no time did they tell me that I had to read it before they accepted my signature. I told them that I trusted them. We called ourselves the three musketeers. I know now that is one place where I went wrong. I should have sat down and I should have read the affidavit. I may not have understood everything in the affidavit and I would have probably signed it anyway. I trusted the lawyers.
My lawyers never discussed what an abortion is other than to make the misrepresentation that it is only tissue. I never understood that the child was already in existence. I never understood that the child was a complete separate human being. I was under the false impression that abortion somehow reversed the process and prevented the child from coming into existence. In the years during the case no one including my lawyers told me that an abortion is actually terminating the life of an actual human being. The courts never took any testimony about this and I heard nothing which shed light on what abortion really was.
Sarah Weddington argued in the courts presumptuously on my behalf that women should be allowed to obtain a legal abortion. The courts did not ask whether I knew what I was asking for. The abortion decision that destroyed every state law protecting the rights of women and their unborn babies was based on a fundamental misrepresentation. I had never read the affidavit and I did not know what an abortion was. Weddington and the other supporters of abortion used me and my circumstance to urge the courts to legalize abortion without any meaningful trial which addressed the humanity of the baby and what abortion would do to women. At that time I was a street person. I lived worked and panhandled out on the streets. My totally powerless circumstance made it easy for them to use me. My presence was a necessary evil. My real interests were not their concern.
As the class action plaintiff in the most controversial Supreme Court case of the twentieth century I only met with the attorneys twice. Once over pizza and beer when I was told that my baby was only tissue and another time at Coffee office to sign the affidavit. I had no other personal contacts. I was never invited into court. I never testified. I was never present before any court on any level and I was never at any hearing on my case. The entire case was an abstraction. The facts about abortion were never heard. Totally excluded from every aspect and every issue of the case I found out about the decision from the newspaper just like the rest of the country.
In a way my exclusion and the exclusion of real meaningful findings of fact in Roe v Wade is symbolic of the way in which the women of the nation and their experiences with abortion have been ignored in a national debate by the abortion industry. The view that is presented is the view of what the abortion industry thinks is good for women. The reality of womens experiences is never presented.
I never had an abortion and gave the baby up for adoption. It was only later in life that I was confronted with the reality of abortion. Being unskilled and uneducated with alcohol and drug problems finding and holding a job was always a problem for me. But with my notoriety from Roe v Wade abortion facilities usually paying a dollar an hour more than minimum wage were always willing to add Jane Roe to their ranks.
In the early nineties I began working in abortion facilities where I was always in control. I could either make a woman stay or help her leave. My duties were similar to those of a nurse such as taking patients blood pressure and pulse and administering oxygen although I never took any statistics or temperatures. Basically I would stand inside the procedure room hold the womens hands and say things to distract them by saying What is the most exciting or happiest period of your life Meanwhile the abortionist was performing what is represented as a painless procedure and the women were digging their nails into me in an effort to endure the pain.
I worked in several abortion facilities over the years. In fact I even worked at two facilities at the same time. They were all the same with respect to the condition of the facilities and the counseling the women received. One clinic where I worked was typical light fixtures and plaster falling from the ceiling rat droppings over the sinks backed up sinks and blood splattered on the walls. But the most distressing room in the facility was the parts room. Aborted babies were stored here. There were dead babies and baby parts stacked like cordwood. Some of the babies made it into buckets and others did not and because of its disgusting features no one ever cleaned the room. The stench was horrible. Plastic bags full of baby parts that were swimming in blood were tied up stored in the room and picked up once a week. At another clinic the dead babies were kept in a big white freezer full of dozens of jars all full of baby parts little tiny hands feet and faces visible through the jars frozen in blood. The abortion clinic personnel always referred to the dismembered babies as tissue.
While all the facilities were much the same the abortion doctors in the various clinics where I worked were very representative of abortionists in general. The abortionists I knew were usually of foreign descent with the perception that the lax abortion laws in the United States present a fertile money making opportunity. One abortionist in particular would sometimes operate bare chested and sometimes shoeless with his shirt off and earned a six figure income. He did not have to worry about his bedside manner learning to speak English or building a clientele.
While the manners of the abortionists and the uncleanliness of the facilities greatly shocked me the lack of counseling provided the women was also a tragedy. Early in my abortion career it became evident that the counselors and the abortionists were there for only one reason to sell abortions. The extent of the abortionists counseling was Do you want an abortion Ok you sign here and we give you abortion Then he would direct me You go get me another one There was nothing more. There was never an explanation of the procedure. No one even explained to the mother that the child already existed and the life of a human was being terminated. No one ever explained that there were options to abortion that financial help was available or that the child was unique and irreplaceable. No one ever explained that there were psychological and physical risks of harm to the mother. There was never time for the mother to reflect or to consult with anyone who could offer her help or an alternative. There was no informed consent. In my opinion the only thing the abortion doctors and clinics cared about was making money. No abortion clinic cared about the women involved. As far as I could tell every woman had the name of Jane Roe.
Typically most of the women would cry as soon as the suction machine was shut off or at some point. Sometimes I thought that they realized what had been done to their babies. Once I heard a woman call her mother and say I just killed my baby I am so glad you never killed me.
The doctors always hid the truth from the mothers. I would say about most of the women would try to look down during the abortion and try to see what was happening. This is the reason the doctors would start with the scalpel to make sure there was just blood and torn up tissue for the women to see. Specifically I remember one woman who came in for an abortion a pretty sweet young woman with a teddy bear. During the procedure she looked down and saw the babys hand fall into the doctors hand. She gasped and passed out. When she awoke and asked about what she saw I lied to her and told her it did not happen. But she insisted that she had seen part of her baby. A few weeks later when she returned for her follow up exam she was a changed person her sweetness had died and had been replaced with an indescribable hardness. I could not look her in the eye. It took quite a few beers that night to make that particular day go away.
In all of the clinics where I worked the employees were forbidden to say anything that might talk the mother out of an abortion. While the abortionists counseling was nonexistent my counseling technique gradually became different depending on my mood and the stage of my career. The experience of abortion began to take its toll on me. In later years I would sometimes take all the instruments that were used in an abortion procedure and purposely leave a little of the blood on some of the instruments. Laying the instruments out on the little table in front of the woman I would tell her This is the first instrument that is going to be inserted into your vaginal area. It would have just had a little smudge of blood and I thought it was very dramatic. In retrospect I do not even know why I was doing these things. It was as if I was trying to talk these women out of the abortion something we were forbidden to do. In other counseling sessions I would demonstrate the position and warn her that the instruments were sharp and that if she moved the doctor might slip and puncture her uterus and she would bleed to death. In other situations when a woman asked me how much it cost I asked her in response how much she wanted to pay to kill her baby. She replied They told me it was not a baby. I responded What do you think it is inside you a fish Other times I would comfort them after the abortion by saying It was not a baby. It was only a missed period. Sometimes when I managed to make the women unsure I would offer to refund their money except for the ultrasound.
After I saw all the deception going on in the abortion facilities and after all the things that my supervisors told me to tell the women I became very angry. I saw women being lied to openly and I was part of it. There is no telling how many children I helped kill while their mothers dug their nails into me and listened to my warning Whatever you do do not move Because I was drunk or stoned much of the time I was able to continue this work for a long time probably much longer than most clinic workers. It is a high turnover job because of the true nature of the business. The abortion business is an inherently dehumanizing one. A person has to let her heart and soul die or go numb to stay in practice. The clinic workers suffer the women suffer and the babies die. I can assure this Court that the interest of these mothers is not a concern of abortion providers. I obviously advocated legalized abortion for many years following Roe v Wade. But working in the abortion clinics forced me to accept what abortion really is It is a violent act which kills human beings and destroys the peace and the real interests of the mothers involved.