First Roe, now Doe: The legal facade crumbles

National | Plaintiff in the other key 1973 abortion case, Doe vs. Bolton, publicly recants the false story the Supreme Court believed | Roy Maynard

A man comes to the door of Sandra Cano's south Atlanta home; he's a neighbor in this poor, mostly minority community. This Hispanic man has gotten a ticket, he explains in Spanish. He asks Mrs. Cano if she would talk to the court for him. Her hands and schedule are full this morning; she is talking to a reporter and taking care of two grandchildren. Still, she tells the man not to worry, she'll speak for him. "I'm the neighborhood helper," Mrs. Cano explains. "My Spanish is better than their English, so sometimes they need me to be their voice."

Mrs. Cano has been in this role before. In 1970 she became Mary Doe, a representative of women seeking abortion. Although she never spoke in court (her lawyers did that), she was the named plaintiff in a pivotal Supreme Court case, Doe vs. Bolton, that opened the floodgates of abortion on demand. But the case was built on lies, she says, and she's coming forward now to set straight the history of this American holocaust. Her first public appearance was slated for last weekend at the dedication of the National Memorial for the Unborn in Chattanooga.