Sarah Weddington

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Sarah Weddington
File:Sarah Weddington - NARA - 181411 (cropped).tif
Weddington at the White House in 1978
White House Director of Political Affairs
In office
August 10, 1979 – January 20, 1981
President Jimmy Carter
Preceded by Timothy Kraft
Succeeded by Lyn Nofziger
Member of the Texas House of Representatives
from the 37-B district
In office
January 1977 – January 20, 1977
Preceded by Constituency established
Succeeded by Mary Jane Bode
Member of the Texas House of Representatives
from the 37-2 district
In office
January 1973 – January 1977
Preceded by Constituency established
Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born Sarah Ragle
(1945-02-05)February 5, 1945
Abilene, Texas, U.S.
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Austin, Texas, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Ron Weddington (m. 1968; div. 1974)
Education McMurry University (BA)
University of Texas, Austin (JD)

Sarah Ragle Weddington (February 5, 1945 – December 26, 2021) was an American attorney, law professor, and member of the Texas House of Representatives best known for representing "Jane Roe" (real name Norma McCorvey) in the landmark Roe v. Wade case before the United States Supreme Court.[1][2]

Early life and education

Sarah Ragle was born on February 5, 1945, in Abilene, Texas, to Lena Catherine and Herbert Doyle Ragle, a Methodist minister.[3][4] As a child, she was drum major of her junior high band, president of the Methodist youth fellowship at her church, played the organ, sang in the church choir, and rode horses.[5]

Weddington graduated from high school two years early and then graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from McMurry University.[4] She was a member of Sigma Kappa sorority. In 1964, she entered the University of Texas Law School and graduated in 1967.[4] In 1967, during her third year of law school, Weddington conceived with Ron Weddington and travelled to Mexico for an illegal abortion.[6][7] She received her J.D. that same year, graduating in the top quarter of her class.[8] Weddington held honorary doctorates from McMurry University, Hamilton College, Austin College, Southwestern University, and Nova Southeastern University.[9]

From 1968 to 1974, she was married to Weddington.[10][11] After her divorce, Sarah continued to live alone in Austin, Texas.[9]

Roe v. Wade

After graduating, Weddington found it difficult to find a job with a law firm.[6] She instead joined a group of graduate students at University of Texas-Austin that were researching ways to challenge various anti-abortion statutes.[12]

Soon after, a pregnant woman named Norma McCorvey visited a local attorney seeking an abortion.[13] The attorney instead assisted McCorvey with handing over her child for adoption and after doing so, referred McCorvey to Weddington and Linda Coffee.[14] In March 1970, Weddington and her co-counsel filed suit against Henry Wade, the Dallas district attorney and the person responsible for enforcing the anti-abortion statute.[15] McCorvey became the landmark plaintiff and was referred in the legal documents as "Jane Roe" to protect her identity.[16]

Weddington first stated her case in front of a three-judge district court on May 1970 in Dallas.[17] The district court agreed that the Texas abortion laws were unconstitutional, but the state appealed the decision, landing it before the United States Supreme Court.[17]

Weddington appeared before the Supreme Court in 1971 and again in the fall of 1972.[18] Her argument was based on the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, and 14th amendments, as well as the Court's previous decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which legalized the sale of contraceptives based on the right of privacy.[19]

The Court's decision was ultimately handed down in January 1973, overturning Texas’ abortion law by a 7-2 majority and legalizing abortion throughout the United States.[20]

In 1989, she was portrayed by Amy Madigan in the television film Roe vs. Wade.[21] In 1992, Weddington compiled her experiences with the case and interviews with the people involved into a book titled A Question of Choice.[22]

Subsequent career

File:Sarah Weddington at March for Women's Lives 2004.JPG
Weddington in Washington, D.C. in 2004

After arguing Roe v. Wade, Weddington was elected to three terms in the Texas House of Representatives.[18]

Weddington attended the historic 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston as a Texas delegate speaking on the resolution of women's reproductive freedom.[23]

Additionally, Weddington served in the United States Department of Agriculture in 1977,[24] assistant to President of the United States Jimmy Carter from 1978 to 1981,[25] and lecturer at Texas Woman's University from 1981 to 1990.[26] She was the founder of the Weddington Center.[25] She also served as a speaker and adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin until 2012.[27]

Weddington explained in a speech at the Institute for Educational Ethics in Oklahoma why she used the false rape charges all the way to the Supreme Court: “My conduct may not have been totally ethical. But I did it for what I thought were good reasons."[28] In a 2018 interview with Time, she spoke of how McCorvey was "a changeable person" and went on to say: "the problem I had was trying to tell when she was telling the truth and when she wasn’t". She further explained: "I was very careful in drafting the materials that were filed with the court to be sure I only put in things I was sure were accurate."[29]

Death

On the morning of December 26, 2021, Weddington was found unresponsive in her Austin, Texas, home by her assistant. She had died in her sleep earlier that morning, at the age of 76.[30] In the time leading to her death, Weddington had a series of health issues.[4][31] Her death came shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case reconsidering the Roe v. Wade decision.[32]

Publications

As author

  • A Question of Choice, Smithmark Publishers, Incorporated, 1993, ISBN 9780831753344; Consortium Book Sales & Dist, 2013, ISBN 9781558618121
  • The United States Delegation to the United Nations Mid-Decade Conference for Women, Copenhagen (July 14–30, 1980)[citation needed]
  • The legal status of homemakers in Texas (1997)[citation needed]
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As contributing author

  • Guide to women's resources. The Office of Sarah Weddington (1980)[citation needed]
  • Honoring a commitment to the people of America : the record of President Jimmy Carter on issues (1980)[citation needed]
  • Roe v. Wade: proceedings of arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court (1970s)[citation needed]
  • Barbara Vackar papers (1972–1979)[citation needed]
  • Hermine Tobolowsky collection (1957–1983)[citation needed]
  • A documentary of progress during the administration of Jimmy Carter (1977 to 1981)[citation needed]
  • Texas women in politics (1977)[citation needed]

References

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  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ "Persistent Champion of Choice: Nineteen years after Roe v. Wade, attorney Sarah Weddington is speaking out about her role in the case and her own abortion.". LA Times. September 1992.
  11. ↑ "The Weddington Way". The Washington Post. February 11, 1979.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Tulsa World 24-V-93
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • A documentary of progress during the administration of Jimmy Carter, 1977 to 1981: Barbara Haugen, editor; from the Office of Sarah Weddington, Assistant to the President, The White House (1981)

External links

Political offices
Preceded by White House Director of Political Affairs
1979–1981		 Succeeded by
Lyn Nofziger
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