Sarah Weddington

Sarah Weddington, September 18, 1978

Sarah Ragle Weddington (born February 5, 1945, in Abilene, Texas) is an American attorney and lecturer from Texas who gained worldwide fame when she and Linda Coffee represented "Jane Roe" (real name Norma McCorvey) in the landmark Roe v. Wade case in the United States Supreme Court.

Background and Education

She is the daughter of Lena Catherine and Rev. Herbert Doyle Ragle, a Methodist minister from the small town of Abilene, Texas. From a young age she has been a very hard working, ambitious woman who was never interested in having a traditional married life with children. She was drum major of her junior high band and president of the methodist youth fellowship at her church. She also played the organ, sang in the church choir and enjoyed riding horses in her spare time.

As a sophomore in High school she was president of the Future Homemakers of America . Weddington stated: "That was one of the few things that a woman could be president of, so I was". She managed to complete High school two years early and then went on to graduate magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English from McMurry University, after which she gained some work experience during the spring as a clerk/typist for a legislature in Austin.

In 1964 she attended the University of Texas Law School despite being warned by her Dean from McMurry University, that as a woman she would be unable to cope with the stress and the amount of work of the course. Weddington was 1 of 5 females entering her class of 120 students and only 1 of 40 females that attended the law school of 1600 students. She was in a class that included United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. It was in one of the common rooms that Weddington actually became aware that she was not alone in having concerns for women deserving equal rights.

Unfortunately in her third year of Law school (1967) she had an unplanned pregnancy with her partner Ron Weddington who she later married in 1968. Through fear of her parents finding out and having a baby at such a young age, she travelled to Mexico to get an illegal abortion. Weddington was lucky to find a professional practitioner and survive; many other women were not so lucky. She eventually received her J.D. degree by graduating in the top quarter of her class in 1967.

Weddington holds honorary doctorates from McMurry University, Hamilton College, Austin College, Southwestern University, and Nova Southeastern University. She is a distinguished Alumna of McMurry University, where she was inducted into the Zeta Nu chapter of Sigma Kappa sorority.

Roe v. Wade

After graduating, Weddington found it difficult to find a job and thus became more involved in the women's movement through a conscious raising group in Austin. In 1969, the Women's Liberation Birth Control Information Centre approached Weddington seeking advice on whether their involvement in referring abortions to other females was legal. Even though she had little experience in the legal sphere she decided to do some research and found that under the 9th amendment all US citizens had a right to privacy.

Weddington along with Linda Coffee chose Norma McCorvey (also known as Jane Roe to protect identity) as a plaintiff to challenge the statute of abortion in the state of Texas. Norma was a victim of an unwanted pregnancy and had two children taken away from her on the grounds of being an unfit mother.

Weddington first stated her case in front of a three-judge district court on May 1970 at the Dallas federal courthouse. The judges agreed that current abortion laws in Texas were unlawful, however the State of Texas appealed the decision resulting in the case to proceed to the US Supreme Court. Weddington was 26 years old when the case was first argued before the Supreme Court, and it was her first contested case.

In the fall of 1972 Weddington returned to court and argued the 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 14th amendments. She also used the Supreme Courts decision in the Griswold v. Connecticut case, which legalised the sale of contraceptives to women based on the right of privacy. She also received a lot of support in the case from her family, several colleagues, other public interest lawyers, professors and numerous religious groups who submitted amicus briefs. In January 1973 the Supreme Court decided that abortion should be a private matter, and therefore it was recognised that within the first trimester of a woman's pregnancy abortion is legal. It is believed that Sarah Weddington is the youngest person to win a Supreme Court case at the age of 27.

Career

In 1973 Sarah Weddington won Roe V Wade

She Served in texas house of representatives in 1973 for 3 terms

In the 63rd Legislature she was on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, the Insurance Committee, the Chairperson of Special Committee on State Employment through the Appropriations Committee, and was appointed as the Speaker to the Special House Rules Revision Committee. The legislation she passed in this time was the Texas Kidney Health Care Act, providing healthcare for Texans without emptying their pockets, the House Bill 950, making credit cards available to man or woman of any race and the House Bill 1326/ Senate Bill 274, Putting the state-owned submerged land in the School Land Board’s care and giving them the responsibility to make sure the land follows environment regulations.The legislation the co-sponsored at the time was House Bill 1512, a building site with a State of Texas Historical Medallion must be registered 60 days prior to alteration or destruction to review, record and possibly save the landmark and the House Bill 787, Children the age of 5 can attend public kindergarten.

In the 64th Legislature she was on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, the Election Committee, the Texas Commission on Interstate Cooperation Committee and during impeachment, was appointed to the Special Committee on Impeachment and Board of Managers for the Senate impeachment trial. The Legislation passed was the House Bill 31, putting a price ceiling of $6 per semester hour that state colleges or universities could charge for their building use and the House Bill 1581, an addition to the Texas Health Care Act, added benefits to end-stage Kidney patients and all around strengthened the act. She co-sponsored the reform of Texas Rape Law with Kay Bailey Hutchinson, providing legal protection to rape and sexual assault victims, among many, many other bills.

In the 65th Legislature, she was on the Elections Committee, the State Affairs Committee, of which she was on the subcommittee of Public Utilities and the chairmen of the subcommittee of State Institution appointed to the National Conference of State Legislature’s Standing Committee on Professional Development, and the Dean of Travis County Delegation. She passed HB 331, which increased the hotel tax by 1% so the counties could spend more towards art and HB 628, which helped promote state employment in Travis County by adding a central job information center. She helped passHB 1014, stating that college students have a voice in how their tuition is spent, HB 1135, creating three new courts in Travis County, and HSR 24, which was pro-alternate energy. Her other jobs include General council of the U.S. department of agriculture in 1977 (first woman to hold that office), assistant to president Jimmy Carter from 1978-1981, distinguished lecturer at TWU from 1981-1990, adjunct professor at TWU in 1993, adjunct professor at UT Austin from 1989-presant, the founder of the Weddington Center and a speaker and writer, dealing mainly in women in leadership.

External links

• The Weddington Center
• LawyerCrossing: Roe v Wade
• SuperLawyers: Roe v Wade

Further reading

• Works by Sarah Weddington
  • A Question of Choice (1993)
  • The United States Delegation to the United Nations Mid-Decade Conference for Women, Copenhagen (July 14-30, 1980)
  • The legal status of homemakers in Texas (1997)
• Works with Sarah Weddington as a Contributing Author
  • Guide to women's resources (1980)
  • Honoring a commitment to the people of America : the record of President Jimmy Carter on women's issues (1980)
  • Women in government: your guide to more than 400 top women in the federal government (1979)
  • Roe v. Wade: proceedings of arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court (1970s)
  • Barbara Vackar papers (1972-1979)
  • Hermine Tobolowsky collection (1957-1983)
  • Women : a documentary of progress during the administration of Jimmy Carter (1977 to 1981)
  • Texas women in politics (1977)

• Works concerning Sarah Weddington
  • Women: 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)

Preceded by Obsolete district	Member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 37-2 (Austin) 1973–1977	Succeeded by Obsolete district
Preceded by Obsolete district	Member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 37-B (Austin) 1977–1977	Succeeded by Mary Jane Bode