'Jane Roe' Norma McCorvey: I Was Paid for Pro-Life Switch

Norma McCorvey, the anonymous plaintiff known as "Jane Roe" in the case Roe v. Wade, has revealed she was paid to oppose abortion by various anti-abortion groups, including Operation Rescue, describing her pro-life statements as "an act."

McCorvey is subject of the documentary "AKA Jane Roe," which premieres this Friday on FX. In an interview, which was filmed just months before her death in 2017, McCorvey says she "was the big fish" to many anti-abortion groups because of the landmark case she was involved in.

"I was the big fish," she says, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they'd put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That's what I'd say.

"It was all an act. I did it well, too. I am a good actress."

McCorvey was ill at the time, and described her interview as a "deathbed confession," in which she iterates she has remained pro-choice.

"If a young woman wants to have an abortion, that's no skin off my a**. That's why they call it choice."

Director Nick Sweeney told the Times the purpose of the film is to depict McCorvey as she was, not just cause controversy.

"The focus of the film is Norma," he said. "That's what I really want people to take away from the film — who is this enigmatic person at the center of this very divisive issue.

"With an issue like this there can be a temptation for different players to reduce 'Jane Roe' to an emblem or a trophy, and behind that is a real person with a real story. Norma was incredibly complex."

• McCorvey, Who Was at Center of Roe V. Wade, Dead at 69
• 'Unplanned' and 'Roe v. Wade' Bring the Pro-Life Movement to the Movies