Admirers remember Roe vs. Wade lawyer Sarah Weddington as ‘a Texas giant’

Hundreds of supporters of abortion rights in Texas and beyond took to social media Sunday to remember the life of Sarah Weddington, a key figure and pioneer in abortion and women’s issues, who died in her sleep in Austin on Sunday. She was 76.

“Sarah Weddington was a great Texan who changed the course of our nation’s history,” Dallas Rep. Colin Allred said in a prepared statement. “Our generation of Texans has a responsibility to continue her efforts to protect the right to choose and I’ll always work in Congress to do so.”

Weddington was 26 when she first argued the landmark abortion case Roe vs. Wade before the Supreme Court.

Abortion became legal in the United States when the court made its 7-2 decision on Jan. 22, 1973, and making Weddington a heroine to some and a villain to others.

“Sarah Weddington was a Texas giant,” said Texas Rep. John Bucy III in a tweet. “From litigating Roe v. Wade, to serving in the Texas House, to supporting countless women in politics, she has left a legacy of fighting for progress that is nearly unmatched.”

Susan Hays, Weddington’s mentee and former student, said on Twitter that Weddington inspired her to be a lawyer and that they often talked about politics and service.

“Public schools don’t teach kids what they don’t have or didn’t have but for the work of people like Sarah,” Hays said. “Her lessons opened my eye to just how tenuous my liberty and autonomy as a human being were and are.”

In a tweet thread, Hays said Weddington worked on the Roe vs. Wade case because law firms were reluctant to hire women in the 1970s.

Hays said that meant Weddington had “lots of time for good trouble,” including a run for office and becoming the first woman from Travis County elected to the Texas Legislature.

Michelle Deitch, a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin’s public policy and law school, said that she met Weddington when she first moved to Austin. Deitch said that Weddington was warm and welcoming and offered great guidance.

“We have lost a true she-ro and a good soul,” Deitch said.

Also speaking out were some of Weddington’s critics, including Arkansas State Sen. Jason Rapert and Janet Morana, co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, who said that millions of babies died because of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Conservative lawyer Jenna Ellis, once a legal adviser to former President Donald Trump, also tweeted about the death of babies because of Roe.

U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett described Weddington as a friend, and praised her for her work in support of women’s reproductive freedom, but also recognized her work as a legislator, presidential advisor, educator and public speaker.

“Her passion for reproductive freedom was matched by her compassion for our neighbors. She shows the tremendous impact that one determined woman can make,” Doggett said in a tweet. “With Sarah gone, it is more important than ever to ensure that the fundamental constitutional freedom for which she secured recognition from our highest court is not also gone.”

State Rep. Celia Israel said Weddington was her professor at UT-Austin and that Weddington held her to “high standards.”

Weddington’s death comes at a time when reproductive rights are still hotly debated. The Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case concerning Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which is considered to be the most serious challenge in years to the Roe decision.

“With reproductive health care under attack here in Texas and across the nation, we should follow Sarah’s lead and fight for what’s right with the courage of our convictions,” Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke said in a written statement.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas also hailed the work of Weddington, with spokeswoman Sarah Wheat saying she “grew up at a time when women faced limits and roadblocks in nearly every aspect of their lives. As a young Texas lawyer, she stood fearlessly before the U.S. Supreme Court generating the landmark abortion rights decision that changed the course of history and opened doors for the generations that followed.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a tweet, “What a loss. What a tremendous legacy. Planned Parenthood will continue to honor Sarah Weddington’s work every day — by keeping up the fight to ensure that EVERYONE has access to abortion.”