Was 'Jane Roe' of Roe v. Wade merely putting on an 'act'?

The Daily Beast reports a new FX documentary, "AKA Jane Roe," contends Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in the 1973 Supreme Court abortion case, deceived pro-lifers into thinking she believed in their cause.

In a deathbed confession, according to the film, McCorvey said her turn to the pro-life camp as a born-again Christian was "all an act." She said she took money and provided statements in front of cameras.

"I'm a good actress," the said in the film. "Of course, I'm not acting now."

However, the Daily Caller reported people who spent years working with her scoffed at the idea.

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Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said he knew McCorvey for 23 years, and "she spent more time fighting against abortion than she did in favor of it."

He said her position on abortion was not an act.

"The producers of this film obviously have an agenda. And so, you know, I think you have to view the so-called documentary in that light."

On Twitter, Janet Morana, co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and executive director of Priests for Life, wrote: "#NormaMcCorvey was my friend. … She was not paid to be #prolife – how some documentary filmmakers got her to say so is suspicious, at the very least."

Frank Pavone, also of Priests for Life, said: "So #abortion supporters are claiming Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe v Wade, wasn’t sincere in her conversion. … I was her spiritual guide for 22 years, received her into the #Catholic Church, kept regular contact, spoke (with) her the day she died, & conducted her funeral. Norma McCorvey went through pain and difficult healing of the wounds her initial support of the #abortion cause brought her."

Longtime pro-life activist Randall Terry, who has been arrested dozens of times for opposing abortion, said: "If they are saying her conversion to Christ, or the pro-life cause was not real, they did not know the Norma that I knew. What she said on tape at the end of her life is something we can discuss.

"Norma and I spent an enormous amount of time together. We told jokes, drank beer, shot pool, did shots on our down time, but when it was time to herald the message for the unborn, she was all in. She was arrested with us twice – once at Notre Dame to protest Obama getting an award, the other time during the Sotomayor confirmation hearings. No one was paying her to get arrested … or to go through the hassles of the legal system. She did that because she believed. She stayed with my family for a month when she was in a rough spot. Obviously, we had a lot of time together at that time. I came to know her better than most people."

He said McCorvey was paid for public speaking engagements, explaining, "She had bills to pay, as we all do."

The Daily Caller reported a former pro-lifer, Rob Schenck, also appears in the film.

He said he now condemns his former "Reagan-Republican" religion.

"I had never heard her say anything like this. … But I knew what we were doing," Schenck said in the documentary. "And there were times when I was sure she knew. And I wondered, 'Is she playing us?' What I didn't have the guts to say was, 'because I know damn well we're playing her.'"

The report said the documentary purports to show documents proving McCorvey was paid $456,911 in "benevolent gifts."

The Daily Beast's headline claimed McCorvey's "act" was "paid for by the Christian Right."

That report states: "In the final third of director Nick Sweeney's 79-minute documentary, featuring many end-of-life reflections from McCorvey – who grew up queer, poor, and was sexually abused by a family member her mother sent her to live with after leaving reform school – the former Jane Roe admits that her later turn to the anti-abortion camp as a born-again Christian was 'all an act.'"

Newman said the FX movie "does not portray the real Norma McCorvey, who I knew well and called my friend."

"I saw her in unguarded moments and can verify she was 100 percent pro-life. … FX and everyone involved in smearing her name and life's work to end abortion owe her memory and the entire pro-life movement an apology."

He said Sweeney has no credibility because of his previous work, including titles "Born in the Wrong Body," "Transgender Kids" and "Sex robots."

"There is no way her Christian faith or her pro-life beliefs were false. The makers of 'AKA Jane Roe' should be ashamed that they took advantage of Norma in the vulnerable last days of her life, then released their spurious movie after she passed away when she could not defend herself," Newman said.