Sarah Weddington, Roe v. Wade attorney, dead at 76

AUSTIN, Texas — Sarah Weddington, who argued for the plaintiff in the landmark Roe v. Wade case before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s, died Sunday. She was 76.

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Attorney Susan Hays, a Democratic attorney running for Texas agriculture commissioner who is a former student of Weddington, confirmed her mentor’s death in a Twitter post, The Dallas Morning News reported. Weddington reportedly died in Austin, where she lived, according to the newspaper.

Weddington was found unresponsive in her Austin home early Sunday by her assistant, Hays said. The official cause of death is not yet known, KXAN-TV reported.

On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down a 7-2 decision that effectively made abortion legal in the U.S., the Morning News reported. Weddington became the youngest person ever to successfully argue a case before the nation’s highest court.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett described Weddington as a “friend and fellow legislator who worked effectively for Austin,” according to KXAN.

“Her passion for reproductive freedom was matched by her compassion for our neighbors. She shows the tremendous impact that one determined woman can make,” Doggett said. “With Sarah gone, it is more important than ever to ensure that the fundamental constitutional freedom for which she secured recognition from our highest court is not also gone.”

On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Dobbs vs. Mississippi, a case that has the potential to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the Morning News reported.

Sarah Ragle Weddington was born Feb. 5, 1945, the daughter of a Methodist minister, The New York Times reported. She graduated from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, with a degree in English in 1964 and earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in 1967.

“I thought I would be teaching eighth graders to love ‘Beowulf,’” Weddington told The Guardian in 2017. “But that wasn’t working out so well, so I decided to go to law school instead. In this, I was encouraged by the dean of my college, who told me that it would be far too tough for a woman. ‘As sure as dammit I am going,’ I thought.”

After graduating from law school, Weddington joined a group of students who were seeking to challenge anti-abortion laws, agreeing to file a suit against the state of Texas on their behalf, The Guardian reported. Soon after, 21-year-old Norma Jean McCorvey was referred to Weddington and her colleague, Linda Coffee. McCorvey became the plaintiff, “Jane Roe”, although by the time the Supreme Court issued its ruling, her baby had been born and given up for adoption.

In early March 1970, Roe v. Wade was filed in federal court in Dallas, the Times reported.

Henry Wade was the district attorney in Dallas from 1951 to 1987, known for prosecuting Jack Ruby for his fatal shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, the Morning News reported.

McCorvey died in 2017 at the age of 69, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Weddington later was a Texas legislator from 1973 to 1977 and a White House assistant to President Jimmy Carter from 1978 to 1981, the newspaper reported.

Weddington also authored the 1992 book, “A Question of Choice.” She was inducted into the Austin Women’s Hall of Fame in 2018, KXAN reported.

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