Mystery of the child at the center of Roe v Wade: Mother died without ever reconnecting with the baby girl put up for adoption who was basis for the case that legalized abortion

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Norma McCorvey, the woman immortalized as plaintiff Jane Roe in the landmark Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S, died on Saturday.

The 69-year-old, who had been ill for some time, passed away from heart failure at an assisted living center in Katy, Texas where she was surrounded by her family.

But one person who would not have been there to say goodbye was the girl McCorvey gave up for adoption in 1970, who became the basis of the legal case that changed American's political landscape.

The baby girl, who would now be a 47-year-old woman, was adopted immediately after McCorvey gave birth in June 1970.

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Norma McCorvey, the woman immortalized as plaintiff Jane Roe in the landmark Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S, died on Saturday aged 69

The family who adopted the girl has kept their identity private all these years. 

It is not clear whether the woman was ever told she was the Roe baby, or whether her adoptive family even knew she was McCorvey's daughter.

Her death was confirmed by New York journalist Joshua Prager who is writing a book about McCorvey and spent months interviewing her. 

McCorvey won fame as an abortion-rights icon and as the pro-life activist she would eventually become when she sought to abort her third pregnancy in Texas when she was 22.

The unmarried and unemployed woman told her doctor she did not want to bring the pregnancy to term, which had been the result of a gang rape. 

She said at the time she couldn't afford to travel to the six U.S. states where abortion was legal: Alaska, California, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, and Washington. 

McCorvey's (pictured in 2011) lawsuit, filed under the pseudonym Jane Roe, resulted in the Supreme Court's 1973 landmark decision that established a woman's right to an abortion

McCorvey (right) and attorney Gloria Allred (left) demonstrate during a pro-choice rally in Burbank, California, on July 4, 1989

Her adoption attorney put her in touch with Texas lawyers Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, who were seeking a woman to represent in a legal case to challenge Texas' anti-abortion statute.

The subsequent lawsuit, known as Roe v Wade, led to the Supreme Court's 1973 landmark ruling that established abortion rights.

McCorvey won fame as an abortion-rights icon and as the pro-life activist she would eventually become when she sought to abort her third pregnancy in Texas when she was 22

By that time, McCorney had already given birth to her daughter and given her up for adoption.  

After the court's ruling, McCorvey lived quietly for several years before revealing herself as Jane Roe in the 1980s. She also confessed to lying when she said the pregnancy was the result of rape. 

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, she remained an ardent supporter of abortion rights and worked for a time at a Dallas women's clinic where abortions were performed. 

But she did an about-face and later spoke out on behalf of anti-abortion campaigners after befriending The Rev. Philip 'Flip' Benham when his anti-abortion group moved next door to the clinic where she was working.

She was baptized an evangelical Christian before network TV cameras by Benham, who was the leader of Operation Rescue, now known as Operation Save America. 

Her religious conversion led her to give up her female lover, Connie Gonzales. She said the relationship turned platonic in the early 1990s and that once she became a Christian she believed homosexuality was wrong. 

She did an about-face and later spoke out on behalf of anti-abortion campaigners. She was baptized (above) an evangelical Christian The Rev. Philip 'Flip' Benham

In later years, McCorvey became a born-again Christian who opposed abortion. She is seen above in this January 22, 1997, file photo with her friend, Meredith Champion, during an anti-abortion protest in Dallas

A short time later, she underwent another religious conversion and became a Roman Catholic and left Operation Rescue. Though she was still against abortion, she said she had reservations about the group's confrontational style.

McCorvey formed her own group, Roe No More Ministry, in 1997 and traveled around the U.S. speaking out against abortion. In testimony for a Senate subcommittee in 1998, McCorvey said: 'I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name.' 

In 2005, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by McCorvey to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

McCorvey had written two autobiographies in her lifetime - one about pro-abortion and later about her change in stance.

The first, 'I Am Roe' in 1994, included abortion-rights sentiments along with details of her early life of dysfunctional parents, reform school, petty crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, an abusive husband, an attempted suicide and lesbianism.

Norma McCorvey (middle) joined Rev. Philip 'Flip' Benham's (right) anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, now known as Operation Save America

Norma McCorvey and her attorney Gloria Allred leave the Supreme Court in Washington after sitting in while the court listened to arguments in a Missouri abortion case in 1989

McCorvey was born in Louisiana in 1947 and spent part of her childhood there until her family moved to Dallas. 

In her book, she recounted stealing money at the age of 10 from the gas station where she worked afternoons and weekends and running away to Oklahoma City before being returned home by police. 

She was eventually sent to a state reform school for girls in the northern Texas town of Gainesville, living there from the age of 11 to 15. 

She married Elwood McCorvey at the age of 16, but separated shortly after while she was pregnant. With her drug and alcohol problems, she gave custody of her daughter Melissa to her mother who eventually adopted the girl.

McCorvey fell pregnant to a different man and gave the baby up for adoption in 1967.

It was her third pregnancy that catapulted her into the abortion rights struggle. 

Her first child Melissa was the only one of her three children who was a part of her mother's life. Melissa was with McCorvey when she died.