Norma McCorvey, woman in case legalising US abortion, dies aged 69

Norma McCorvey also known by the pseudonym Jane Roe was instrumental in getting abortion legalised in the US Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay

Norma McCorvey - the woman at the centre of a landmark court case which led to the legalisation of abortion in the US - has died at the age of 69.

Ms McCorvey died at an assisted living centre in Katy, Texas, after suffering from heart failure, according to a journalist who was working on a book about her when she died.

Famously known by the pseudonym Jane Roe, Ms McCorvey was the legal challenger in Roe v Wade - a case that ultimately led to the US Supreme Court making a landmark decision that gave American women the right to choose an abortion.

The court's judgement in Roe v Wade ruled a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy came under the freedom of personal choice in family matters Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File

Ms McCorvey brought her case before US courts in 1969 as an unmarried, unemployed and pregnant 22-year-old seeking to have an abortion in Texas - a state where the procedure was illegal except to save a woman's life.

It was Ms McCorvey's third pregnancy and by the time the supreme court handed down its historic 7-to-2 ruling three years later in 1973 - establishing a woman's constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy - she had already given birth and given the child up for adoption.

In later years McCorvey switched from a supporter of abortion rights to an anti-abortion campaigner and even tried to get the Roe v Wade ruling overturned Credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Following the ruling, and throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Ms McCorvey was an ardent supporter of abortion rights and briefly worked at a Dallas women's clinic where abortions were performed.

Decades later Ms McCorvey underwent a religious conversion and joined the anti-abortion movement, telling the Associated Press in 1998; "I'm 100% pro-life. I don't believe in abortion even in an extreme situation."