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Family and education
She is the daughter of Lena Catherine and Rev. Herbert Doyle Ragle.
Weddington holds honorary doctorates from McMurry University, Hamilton College, Austin College, Southwestern University, and Nova Southeastern University. She received her J.D. degree from The University of Texas School of Law in 1967 (in a class that included United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison) and is a Distinguished Alumna of McMurry University, where she was inducted into the Zeta Nu chapter of Sigma Kappa sorority.
Roe v. Wade
Weddington was 26 years old when the case was first argued before the Supreme Court, and it was her first contested case. She is thought to be the youngest person to win a Supreme Court case.
"Roe", whose real name is Norma McCorvey, maintains that she became the "pawn" of two young and ambitious lawyers (Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee) who were looking for a plaintiff whom they could use to challenge the Texas state law prohibiting abortion.
In her testimony before Congress she stated: "It was my pseudonym, Jane Roe, which had been used to create the "right" to abortion out of legal thin air. But Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee never told me that what I was signing would allow women to come up to me 15, 20 years later and say, "Thank you for allowing me to have my five or six abortions. Without you, it wouldn't have been possible." Sarah never mentioned women using abortions as a form of birth control. We talked about truly desperate and needy women, not women already wearing maternity clothes."[5]
Political career
Weddington was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1972 (where future Texas Governor Ann Richards was her administrative assistant) and was re-elected twice; she was the first woman elected to represent Austin, Texas, in the Texas House of Representatives.
She resigned her seat in 1977 when she was appointed General Counsel for the United States Department of Agriculture, the first woman to hold that position. The following year she became a special White House advisor to President Jimmy Carter. During her time as assistant to Carter, she helped appoint Ruth Bader Ginsburg to a federal judgeship.
She later founded the Weddington Center. She wrote the book, A Question of Choice, detailing the Roe v. Wade case.
Currently, Weddington is an Adjunct Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and travels the world delivering speeches on leadership, her experiences with breast cancer and women's issues. She teaches leadership courses at institutions including Texas Woman's University. She is working on a book on the topic of leadership.
External links
Further reading
- Weddington, Sarah. A Question of Choice.
| 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 |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sarah Weddington |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Texas attorney, legislator, represented Roe in Roe vs. Wade |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 5, 1945 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Abilene, Texas |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
