Sarah Weddington, lawyer who helped convince the Supreme Court to legalize abortion in Roe, is dead at 76

Sarah Weddington
(Image credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Glamour)

Sarah Weddington, one of the lawyers who convinced the Supreme Court to recognize a legal right to abortion in the 1973 case Roe v. Wade, died Sunday at her home in Austin, according to a former student, Susan Hays. Weddington was 76 and had been in poor health, but the proximate cause of death isn't known, Hays told The Associated Press.

Weddington was a 26-year-old recent graduate from the University of Texas Law School when she and a former classmate, Linda Coffee, brought a class-action lawsuit in 1970 against Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade on behalf of Norma McCorvey, identified at the time only as Jane Roe, a pregnant Dallas woman prohibited from terminating her pregnancy under a Texas law.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.