In January of 1973, the issue of abortion was one of the most-debated topics in both American politics and American society. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Roe v. Wade, issued 40 years ago today, has done little to change that.

But, the story of “Roe v. Wade” dates back several months earlier, to June of 1969, when Norma L. McCorvey, a Texas divorcee, discovered she was pregnant with her third child. Coming from a troubled childhood, she had given up her first two children for adoption.

In Texas at the time, abortions were illegal in almost all cases. But, believing rape to be an exclusion to the law, McCorvey claimed to have been raped in an effort to obtain a legal abortion.