Eliza Collins

USA TODAY

Norma McCorvey, the woman behind the 1973 Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion, died Saturday. She was 69 years old.

McCorvey died of heart failure at an assisted-living home in Katy, Texas, according to journalist Joshua Prager. Prager is writing a book about Roe v. Wade and told USA TODAY he has spent hundreds of hours with McCorvey.

McCorvey, who went by the pseudonym Jane Roe, challenged the constitutionality of abortion laws in Texas in 1971. At the time, it was illegal for women to have abortions unless their lives were at risk.

The case made it to the Supreme Court where the justices ruled it was legal to have an abortion because of a woman’s right to privacy protected under the 14th Amendment. The ruling came too late for her to have an abortion and she gave the baby up for adoption.

Later, McCorvey became an anti-abortion activist and filed a motion in Dallas in 2003 to have the case overturned. She alleged that there was new evidence that abortion hurt women. In 2004, judges at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans dismissed the motion.

Anti-abortion groups mourned her death Saturday.

“She was victimized and exploited by abortion ideologues when she was a young woman, but she came to be genuinely sorry that a decision named for her has led to the deaths of more than 58 million children," Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said in a statement. "Norma’s conversion to Christianity, then to Catholicism, was sincere and I was honored to be part of that journey. I’m sorry she won’t be here to celebrate with me when we finally abolish legal abortion in this country, but I know she will be watching.”

"Norma McCovery can RIP. She discovered the lie the early feminists understood. Abortion is not liberation," Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony List, tweeted Saturday.

NARAL Pro-Choice America gave McCorvey credit as someone who “lent her story” to the case that legalized abortion.

“Norma McCorvey lent her story to a court case that changed history and aided women in gaining control of their own destinies. We wish her family peace in this moment of sorrow,” James Owens, a spokesman for the abortion rights group, told USA TODAY.