The "Roe Baby" reveals identity as half-sister speaks to CBS News about their mother's legacy
CBSN
The child at the center of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that secured a woman's legal right to have an abortion, is sharing her story for the first time. The child known as "The Roe Baby" was never publicly identified, until now.
Shelley Thornton spoke to journalist Joshua Prager for his upcoming book "The Family Roe: An American Story." The Atlantic magazine released an excerpt from that book Thursday morning. In it Thornton says "Secrets and lies are, like, the two worst things in the whole world." "I'm keeping a secret, but I hate it." Thornton is the youngest of Norma McCorvey's three daughters.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.