Essential Estrogen

Norma McCorvey, known to most as "Jane Roe" in the landmark medical privacy case Roe v. Wade, will show her support for Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback during the Ames Straw Poll on Saturday.

"Sam Brownback is the right person, in the right place at the right time for our nation as we seek to embrace a culture of life," she said in a prepared statement. "I call on pro-life Iowans to voter for Senator Brownback in Ames this Saturday. Our nation needs a president with strength, courage and moral fortitude -- one who will lead our society on a path that respects human life and dignity."

In 1970, McCorvey was the plaintiff in a case challenging a Texas law prohibiting abortion. At that time, she had claimed her pregnancy was the result of gang rape, a statement she has since declared a lie. The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 where is was ruled that most laws against abortion violated a constitutional right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

In a 1994 autobiography, "I am Roe," she described her life with long-time lesbian partner Connie Gonzales. Following her conversion into first Christianity and then Roman Catholicism, McCorvey described herself as a "reformed lesbian."

In 1995, the year she became a born-again Christian, McCorvey has recanted her previous pro-choice stance. She has converted to the Roman Catholic Church and has toured the nation in an attempt to have Roe v. Wade reversed. As a part of that quest, she launched Roe No More Ministry (now known as Crossing Over Ministry).