Washington PostNorma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, dies at 69Washington PostNorma McCorvey, who was 22, unwed, mired in addiction and poverty, and desperate for a way out of an unwanted pregnancy when she became Jane Roe, the pseudonymous plaintiff of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v.