Mary Doe plaintiff in abortion companion case dies

Today, Sandra Cano, Mary Doe in the Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court Decision a companion decision to Roe v. Wade has lost her battle with cancer !

According to her friends on Facebook- she passed away September 30, 2014

The case was called Doe. Vs. Bolton and it was the companion case for Roe V. Wade.

But Cano never wanted nor had an abortion. In fact, like Norma McCorvey – Roe in the Roe v. Wade case, Cano carried the pregnancy to term.

In 1970, she gave birth to a daughter but gave her up for adoption.

The Doe decision allowed for abortion up until the moment of birth if necessary for the health of the mother.

According to Cano, the original case was advanced without her understanding of what was going on.

Cano once spoke with the National Catholic Register’s senior writer Tim Drake about the case.

Cano, who has become pro-life once told the Catholic Register, “It’s a nightmare to be connected to a case that I never wanted to be connected to. Doe v. Bolton allows abortion up to the ninth month. This case takes children’s lives.”

She explained her connection to the abortion case:

“Back in 1970,” Cano begins, “I had a very complicated marriage and had two children in foster care. I was pregnant and wanted to get my babies back from foster care. I was poor, uneducated and ignorant. My life was very unstable. I was in a survival state. I went to Atlanta Legal Aid to get a divorce. Whoever was there to try to help me, I trusted. That’s how I became unknowingly involved with Doe v. Bolton. Never once did I know that we were going to kill babies.

“I can’t understand how a case like this could go to the Supreme Court without anyone knowing or speaking to me to find out if what the attorney was presenting to the court was true. I was so ignorant I didn’t know that there were two cases that legalized abortion.

“I ran away to Oklahoma to keep from having an abortion. They knew I was against abortion. Grady Memorial Hospital said I had gone before a panel of nine doctors and nurses to seek an abortion. I never sought an abortion. The hospital has no records because I never went to the hospital.

“It was only later that I learned that, through Margie Pitt Hames, I had sued Georgia Baptist Hospital to have an abortion.”

The Register asked how she discovered the truth and she replied, “In 1974, I went to Georgia Right to Life to try to find someone to help me. I told them that I was the woman who was involved in the abortion law, but didn’t know what it was about. They sent me to Fayetteville to seek help. On and off over the years, I would come forward, but when you don’t have money or people willing to help, a lot of people think you’re someone off the nut wagon.

“In the 1980s, I talked to an Atlanta Journal and Constitution newspaper reporter. She told me I had to prove who I was. I asked, “How do you do that?” She told me I had to go down to the court to verify that I was the person involved in the case. When I did that, they told me I had to go to the Federal Archives building. When I did that, they gave me this humongous book to look through. I didn’t understand half of it. I was out of my league. There was also a sealed envelope. I wanted to open it, but couldn’t. They told me that I would have to go to the court to have my records unsealed. Someone at the court showed me how to petition the court to unseal the records.

“A week later, Judge Owen Foster called me. He told me, “I don’t normally do this, but think you need a lawyer. We’re going to be hearing your case.” I found an attorney and went down to the court to unseal the records. Margie Pitt Hames didn’t want me to open the records.

After unsealing the records I wrote to the Supreme Court. They said that the statute of limitations had passed.”

“They connected my name to a case that I never knew about in the beginning, never participated in, never believed in. I carried a guilt for many, many years. I was just a pawn,” Cano told The Blaze.

In 1989, Cano was contacted by the daughter she gave up for adoption:

A post written on Cano’s Facebook page after her death reads, “She is more happy than anyone I know to be gracing heaven. If anyone knows how to enjoy it…it’ll be Sandra. WE love you, Sandra!!! Your name lives on as someone fought for the life of a child…not the right to kill it!!! Love you!!”

In 2005 Cano gave this testimony before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

The Consequences of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton
June 23, 2005

Testimony of Sandra Cano the Former Doe of Doe v, Bolton, before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee June 23, 2005

The Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court decision bears my name. I am Sandra Cano, the former ”Doe” of Doe v. Bolton. Doe v. Bolton is the companion case to Roe v. Wade. Using my name and life, Doe v. Bolton falsely created the health exception that led to abortion on demand and partial birth abortion. How it got there is still pretty much a mystery to me. I only sought legal assistance to get a divorce from my husband and to get my children from foster care. I was very vulnerable: poor and pregnant with my fourth child, but abortion never crossed my mind. Although it apparently was utmost in the mind of the attorney from whom I sought help. At one point during the legal proceedings, it was necessary for me to flee to Oklahoma to avoid the pressure being applied to have the abortion scheduled for me by this same attorney.

Please understand even though I have lived what many would consider an unstable life and overcome many devastating circumstances, at NO TIME did I ever have an abortion. l did not seek an abortion nor do I believe in abortion. Yet my name and life is now forever linked with the slaughter of 40-50 million babies.

I have tried to understand how it all happened. How did my divorce and child custody case become the basis by which bloody murder is done on infants thriving in the wombs of their mothers? How can cunning, wicked lawyers use an uneducated, defenseless pregnant woman to twist the American court system in such a fraudulent way? Doe has been a nightmare.

Over the last 32 years, I have become a prisoner of the case. It took me until 1988 to get my records unsealed in order for me to try and find the answer to those questions and to join in the movement to stop abortion in America. When pro abortion advocates found out about my efforts, my car was vandalized on one occasion and at another time, someone shot at me while I was on my front porch holding my grandbaby.

I am angry. I feel like my name, life, and identity have been stolen and put on this case without my knowledge and against my wishes. How dare they use my name and my life this way!

One of the Justices of the Supreme Court said during oral argument in my case “What does it matter if she is real or not.” Well I am real and it does matter.

R.I.P. Sandra Cano, God knows the truth and to Him it matters as well. Thanks for speaking up for life !!