The woman at the centre of a court case which legalised abortion in the US has died, aged 69.

Norma McCorvey was an anonymous plaintiff known as Jane Roe in the US Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling.

She died on Saturday of heart failure at an assisted living home in Katy, Texas, said Joshua Prager, a journalist who knew her well.

Her lawsuit resulted in the court's 1973 decision that established a woman's right to an abortion.

McCorvey put her courtroom pseudonym behind her in the 1980s when she lent her name to supporters of women's rights.


But she did a dramatic U-turn and later spoke out on behalf of abortion critics as a born-again Christian.

The 1973 ruling has been the focus of a divisive political, legal and moral debate that has raged for decades in the US.

It established that the US Constitution protects the right of a woman to have an abortion until the point of viability.

Efforts to overturn the decision are heating up with the election of Donald Trump as president and a conservative Congress.

Trump has said abortion should be largely banned.

If the Supreme Court were to overrule Roe v. Wade, the procedure would remain legal only where state laws allow it.