Roe lawyer Sarah Weddington helped redefine abortion rights

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Sarah Weddington, who as a young lawyer from Texas won the Roe v. Wade case at the U.S. Supreme Court, is being remembered this week as a champion of feminism whose work impacted the nation's politics as views shifted on abortion. She died Sunday at age 76.

Weddington was 26 when she successfully argued the case that legalized the right to abortion throughout the United States. The Supreme Court's ruling in 1973 cemented her place in history.

“I just see her role at that time as being so courageous,” said Sarah Wheat, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. “For all of us who work in what is, you know — it can be a very challenging field — I feel like that’s a lesson she has shared with me and so many others.”

Roe v. Wade changed the alignment of the major political parties and helped define the playbook U.S. presidents would have to follow to confirm their Supreme Court nominees, said Florida State University law professor Mary Ziegler, who specializes in the legal history of reproduction.

Weddington was “one important part of a bigger picture,” Ziegler said. “She was instrumental in reframing how abortion rights are understood."

Prior to the Roe decision, the coalition in favor of abortion rights included family planning advocates, medical professionals concerned about the consequences of so-called back alley abortions and groups that favored curbs on population growth. Roe validated the notion of a woman's right to have an abortion.

The Supreme Court decided the right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution was “broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy," Justice Harry Blackmun — nominated by Republican President Richard Nixon — wrote in the 7-2 decision.

Longtime women’s rights lawyer...