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.

Family and education

She is the daughter of Lena Catherine and Rev. Herbert Doyle Ragle, a Methodist minister. She skipped two grades in school.

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. She married Ron Weddington.

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.

Sarah Weddington actually argued this case twice before the U.S. Supreme Court, once at age 26, and then again at age 27.

She was one of many speakers at the March For Women's Lives in Washington DC in 2004.

Sarah Weddington at the 2004 March for Women's Lives, Washington DC - Photograph by Patty Mooney

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

• The Weddington Center

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