Breaking news: “Jane Roe” Norma McCorvey arrested at Sotomayor hearing
From the Washington Post, within the hour:
The woman at the center of the Supreme Court’s landmark abortion rights ruling was arrested today at the confirmation hearing for Sonia Sotomayor among a wave of anti-abortion protesters who lined the sidewalks outside the Senate office buildings and several of whom made it into the hearing room and disrupted in an attempt to disrupt the proceedings….
Norma McCorvey, 61, of TX, better known as “Jane Roe” in the famous Roe v. Wade case from January 1973, was arrested after she and another protester started yelling during the opening statement of Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)…. McCorvey… eventually become a leading opponent of the procedure….
McCorvey and Francis Mahoney, 68, of FL were charged with unlawful conduct for disrupting Congress, the 3rd and 4th such arrests the police made during the more than 5-hour proceedings. McCorvey was part of the group of protesters outside the Hart Senate Office Building throughout the day, a gathering led by Randall Terry, the former head of Operation Rescue.
The last 2 rows of the hearing room were reserved for about 50 members of the public, who rotate into the hearings for short intervals and then must be escorted out to allow other citizens to view the historic proceedings. McCorvey and Mahoney were part of a group being escorted out as Franken was praising the service of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MS), a staunch supporter of the Roe decision….
When McCorvey and Mahoney started shouting, they were quickly removed from the room. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Judiciary Committee chairman, banged the gavel on the crowd for the 3rd time today.
“Officers, please remove whoever is causing the disturbance,” Leahy said. “Again, as Senator Sessions and I have said, this is a meeting of the United States Senate. We’ll show respect to everybody who is here, we will show respect to everybody, including to Judge Sotomayor, to the Senators on both sides of the aisle, and we will have order in this room.”
From the Journal Sentinal blog:
Norma McCorvey… began to scream at Sotomayor that she was “wrong ” for her perceived abortion rights views.
“You’re wrong Sotomayor,” she said. “You’re wrong.”…
Earlier, she was among a small group of anti-abortion activists who protested Sotomayor’s confirmation outside the Hart Senate Office building. The group lingered on a sidewalk nearby holding up signs saying “Stop All Abortions.” Other signs depicted graphic images of what appeared to be aborted fetuses. One woman wore a black judicial robe and held a sickle in protest of what demonstrators perceived as Sotomayor’s abortion rights views.
“I’m here to overturn Roe and defeat Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court,” McCorvey said earlier in the day. “She’s unworthy of the position. She’s Catholic. She’s even unworthy of taking communion because of her pro-abortion stance.”
[HT: reader Donald]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Brava Norma for your commitment to life. We all need to stand with you and shout it to the rooftops…Stop the holocaust of human livess..!
I’m 100% pro life, but I deplore this kind of behavior. It just fits into the stereotype that pro life people are nut cases.
We dont win hearts and minds by acting like this.
GOOD for Norma! Besides Jesus SHE is my hero!
Activists for every cause (just or no) can look like nuts. Doesn’t bug me one bit, even if its not my style. This issue is big enough to need all kinds of creative, even confrontational approaches.
If I went through all Norma’s been through, I’d be moved to fight back at the people who used me AND work to undo the violence of abortion, too. She’s more gutsy than the pro-abort crowd ever gave her credit for, and I’m happy that she’s not afraid to get in their faces.
Norma McCorvey is one of the more inconvenient figures for pro-aborts. Some hearts and minds have already responded to her story and legitimate outrage.
It’s annoying when things such as this happen, in my opinion, mostly because overturning Roe v. Wade may or may not be an issue for Sotomayor, but expanding health and adoption and reduction methods still makes her pro-life, and I doubt that she is against any of those otherwise she wouldn’t have made it nearly as far as she has- someone would have stopped her if she was completely against general decency.
I have to say, I like her. Sotomayor’s interpretation of the Constitution is just one that speaks to me, though, for others, it may not feel the same way. For some people, it is best to live in a setting where the Constitution is read literally, but from my standpoint, I think that Obama made a good decision.
Please don’t hate me…
And why do news articles always refer to this as “abortion rights?” That makes it sound as though slaughtering women and children is a right and any one of those pesky “human rights for everyone- including women in need and babies!” nuts is wrong. Abortion is not a right. Arg!
Posted by: Vannah at July 13, 2009 5:47 PM
“It’s annoying when things such as this happen, in my opinion, mostly because overturning Roe v. Wade may or may not be an issue for Sotomayor, but expanding health and adoption and reduction methods still makes her pro-life, ”
—————————————————–
Vannah,
Have you checked your mail box recently. I do believe a large bird with long legs and a long beak left a bundle of joy there for you wrapped in a blue blanket.
It could happen.
yor bro ken
Vannah,
I do not ‘hate’. I just find it hard to take you seriously…….sometimes.
yor bro ken
Vannah,
Anyone who can’t accurately interpret Canon Law, is someone I don’t trust to interpret the Constitution accurately.
Call me crazy.
Hey Vannah — found myself listening to these songs last night and I thought they might be up your alley. Neither band (nor song, especially) is obscure by any stretch, but they have been part of my “laying in the grass on a summer night” stock music for a few years now. Mellow but not down. They have that “I feel infinite” vibe to them (bonus points to anyone who catches that reference! my high school self would be so proud). Leaving the www’s out so you’ll have to copy/paste.
youtube.com/watch?v=ibE7IqEjni4 (not a fan of the video, just the song; it was somewhat popular for a while in those TV show sad-scene-montages, but mostly avoided media saturation and subsequent obnoxiousness)
youtube.com/watch?v=JzIK5FaC38w
As far as Sotomayor, I don’t feel like I know enough about her to have an opinion either way. I’m not really a fan of this kind of behavior, though, generally speaking.
Hey, thanks, Alexandra. :)
I’ll check that out. I have to say, I’m not a fan of this behavior either, even though I adore and have nothing but respect for Norma McCorvey. I don’t know that I would be able to honestly be able to campaign against abortion if I had been the Roe in Roe v. Wade. I would feel trapped, as though there would be no undoing my mistake. She’s courageous, she really is. :)
People thought Jesus was a nut case too.
Wat to go Norma McCorvey. Jesus turned over tables and shouted in the temple. He didn’t back down like a wimp.
“I have to say, I like her. Sotomayor’s interpretation of the Constitution is just one that speaks to me”
kinda like how wise latinas have better insights than people of differentg ethicities or races? Thats swell.
Did you know Barck Obama is pro-life?
NMIO, 6:50PM
People thought Rev. Martin Luther King was a troublemaker, rabblerouser, communist conspirator, and uppity n—– to name just a few.
Mahatma Gandhi was just a foolish old man in a loincloth. Who would ever take him seriously?
Glad she did it.
Not because I think it will help too much, but because the lone screamer I heard about this morning was just a nameless “uncontrolled, spitting lunatic” that our enemies believe us to be.
Adding a few others suggest a more organized, less crazy resistance. Throwing Norma in there forces the press to get her “former Roe of Roe v Wade now pro-life activist” credentials out in front of more people, who just might ask why the change of heart?
Atta girl Norma
If Sonia wants to be catholic, empathetic and constitutional, she would entertain re opening Roe Wade case.
Good for her.
So annoying to hear so called pro-lifers who can’t
abide by anything less than “dignified behavior.”
Wake up!!
The stupid/corrupt SCOTUS won’t even take up the matter
of Norma’s request to re-visit Roe.
She has the standing and the much deserved outrage,
at how her case was distorted and manipulated, to
let it rip in the “hallowed chambers.”
Leslie Hanks,
Dignified behavior? You mean these people suddenly developed standards? Where was their “concern” for dignified behavior when Norma McCorvey admitted she lied about being a gang rape victim? Were they concerned the whole Roe v Wade decision was based on a lie? What about McCorvey’s lawyers? What did they know and when did they know it?
Yes, let’s discuss dignified behavior.
After making his pledge isn’t Obama now pushing for taxpayer funding of abortions in D.C.?
Hi KC,
I understand he is also ending the DC school choice program as well, despite the fact parents and students want to keep it. I heard on TV that every student in this program graduated high school and has been accepted into college. Imagine, a program that actually works, truly betters people’s lives, and doesn’t cost the taxpayer a dime. I have no idea what the rationale of this is, but I suspect Obama is beholden to the teacher’s unions.
After all, the Obamas had the choice of sending their children to the best school they could find, why shouldn’t low income DC parents have the same choice?
Interesting how Obama wants to give DC parents the choice to destroy their unborn children but not the choice to send them to schools that truly educate the children they choose to have.
The black children that aren’t destroyed by abortion will be kept in poverty and ignorance.
I agree with all those who find no fault in Norma’s actions. With four thousand innocent unborn being slaughtered everyday, I think it’s very appropriate to show some emotion on this issue.
After all, if you have no passion to protect the unborn, why call yourself prolife?
“I understand he is also ending the DC school choice program as well, despite the fact parents and students want to keep it. I heard on TV that every student in this program graduated high school and has been accepted into college.”
Can’t dumb down Americans if you actually give them an education.
Rosie,
Very true. The black children not killed in the womb can at very least be kept in their “place”.
People thought Jesus was a nut case too.
Posted by: NoMurderIsOkay at July 13, 2009 6:50 PM
Yeah conservative people back then thought Jesus was a nut case because he was friends with prostitutes and low-lifes. He lived with 12 men. What would the conservatives of today call an unmarried man who lived with men, let alone 12 men ? Isnt this the height of conservative hypocrisy! They would hate a person (let’s say real jesus in his second coming) who adapted same life style as Jesus!
For all those prolifers who voted for republicans just becasue theya re prolifers, let’s discuss about the genocide triggered by Dick Cheney in Iraq!
Oh yeah we need to protect unwanted black kids from DC because
1. We need blacks and hispanics to fight for us in wars. About 40% of the armed forces are minorities
2. So that our police can shoot them when they are adults and our police force can keep their jobs. Kids from poor families (Does not matter black, white or some one else) commit more violent crimes. After all, our gun makers and drug dealers got to sell their stuff to some one!
3. So that likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean hannity make millions by minority bashing with statements like minoritieas are thugs.
David 9:18PM
You’re not making a lot of sense.
40% if the armed forces are minorities? That means 60% are white. Are minorities dragged into the armed forces at gunpoint? Last I heard the military was voluntary.
Right, our police can shoot them as adults. Police don’t hold a candle to gang violence which indiscriminately targets minority men, women and children.
Please, some direct quotes from Rush and Sean as to how minorities are “thugs”.
Joanne, if YOU had been used by thoroughly evil abortion advocates as a pawn in a landmark 1973 ruling, maybe you’d be screaming from the mountaintops as well. Bob
Vannah, I don’t HATE you, but it just scares me that so many millions of muddled thinkers such as you VOTE!! Bob