Norma McCorvey, née Norma Lea Nelson, also known as Jane Roe, (born September 22, 1947, Simmesport, Louisiana, U.S.—died February 18, 2017, Katy, Texas), American activist who was the original plaintiff (anonymized as Jane Roe) in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade (1973), which made abortion legal throughout the United States. McCorvey grew up in Texas, the daughter of a single alcoholic mother. She got into trouble frequently and at one point was sent to a reform school. She married and became pregnant at 16 but divorced before the child was born; she subsequently relinquished custody of the