Sarah Weddington, a 26-year-old Texas attorney who successfully defended the landmark Roe v. Wade for the right to abort before the Supreme Court of the United States, passed away. He was 76 years old.
Susan Hays, a Weddington alumnus and colleague of hers, said she died in her sleep early Sunday morning at her Austin home. Weddington had been in poor health for some time, and the cause of death is unknown at this time, Hays told The Associated Press.
Raised as the daughter of a minister in the West Texas city of Abilene, Weddington attended law school at the University of Texas. A couple of years after graduating, she and a former classmate, Linda Coffee, filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman to challenge a state law that prohibited most abortions.
The case of “Jane Roe”, whose real name was Norma McCorvey, was brought against Henry Wade, the Dallas County District Attorney, and eventually made it to the Supreme Court.
Weddington presented his case to the highest court on two occasions, in December 1971 and in October 1972. The following year the Supreme Court legalized abortion throughout the country with a ruling of 7 votes in favor and 2 against.
Weddington’s death occurred at a time when the highest court is weighing a case around Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which is considered the most significant challenge in years to Roe’s decision. vs. Wade.
While the Supreme Court was examining that case in the 1970s, Weddington also ran to represent Austin in the Texas House of Representatives. She was elected in 1972 and served as a state legislator for three terms, before becoming general counsel for the federal Department of Agriculture. She later served as a consultant on women’s affairs for President Jimmy Carter.
Later Weddington wrote a book on Roe vs. Wade, lectured and taught courses at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas Women’s University on leadership, law, and gender discrimination.
She remained active in the political and legal world until her later years. In 2019, she attended a New York State law enactment ceremony to protect abortion rights in the event that Roe vs. Wade is revoked.
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