Attorney Sarah Weddington speaks during a women’s rights rally on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, in Albany, NY Weddington, who at age 26 successfully argued her landmark abortion rights lawsuit turning point Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court of the United States, died on Sunday, December 26, 2021.
Mike Groll / AP
hide captions
switch captions
Mike Groll / AP
Attorney Sarah Weddington speaks during a women’s rights rally on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, in Albany, NY Weddington, who at age 26 successfully argued her landmark abortion rights lawsuit turning point Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court of the United States, died on Sunday, December 26, 2021.
Mike Groll / AP
DALLAS – Sarah Weddington, a 26-year-old Texas attorney who successfully argued the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court of the United States, died Sunday. She is 76 years old.
Susan Hays, a former student and colleague of Weddington, said she died in her sleep early Sunday morning at her home in Austin. Weddington had been in poor health for a while and the cause of her immediate death was unknown, Hays told the Associated Press.
Raised as the daughter of a minister in Abilene, West Texas, Weddington attended law school at the University of Texas. A few years after graduating, she and a former classmate, Linda Coffee, sued on behalf of a pregnant woman in a class action lawsuit against state law that largely outlawed abortion.
The case of “Jane Roe,” real name Norma McCorvey, was brought against Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade and eventually made it to the Supreme Court.
Weddington, who served as general counsel at the Department of Agriculture, smiles during an interview in her Washington office on August 31, 1978.
Barry Thumma / AP
hide captions
switch captions
Barry Thumma / AP
Weddington, who served as general counsel at the Department of Agriculture, smiles during an interview in her Washington office on August 31, 1978.
Barry Thumma / AP
Weddington argued the case before the high court twice, in December 1971 and again in October 1972, leading to a year later a 7 February ruling legalizing abortion in the United States. nationwide.
Weddington’s death comes as the Supreme Court is considering a case over Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban that is seen by many as the most serious challenge in years to Roe’s decision.
While that case was in court, Weddington was also running to represent Austin in the Texas House of Representatives. She was elected in 1972 and served three terms as a state legislator, before becoming general counsel to the United States Department of Agriculture and later as an adviser on women’s issues to the President. Jimmy Carter.
Weddington later wrote a book about Roe v. Wade, has presented and taught courses at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas Women’s University on leadership, law, and sexism. She remained active in the political and legal worlds into her later years, attending the 2019 signing of a New York state law protecting abortion rights. Roe v. Wade overturned.
