Honoree Profile: Sarah Weddington

Sarah Weddington is widely celebrated as the attorney who successfully argued Roe v Wade. A pioneering female student of law, woman lawyer and state legislator active in a feminist consciousness-raising group, in 1969 she helped establish and do legal work for the Women's Liberation Birth Control Information Center, an abortion referral group.

Eventually the group decided to challenge the Texas abortion law,one of the most stringent in the nation. They felt strongly that the presenting attorney should be a woman, and Weddington was chosen.

Having never done trial work or even handled a contested case, she was very reluctant to accept the role. Finally, she decided to file the case and donate her time, and Roe v Wade was launched. Victory came on January 22, 1973, when a Supreme Court majority opinion affirmed the points in Weddington's argument.

In 1972 Weddington was elected to the Texas House of Representatives from Austin. As a legislator she was interested in the passage of bills involving a state Equal Rights Amendment, maternity rights for teachers, rape law reform and equal credit.

Well known as a high-ranking official in the Jimmy Carter Administration, she served as assistant to the President and adviser on women's issues. She also served as general counsel of the Department of Agriculture, and later as director of the Texas Office of State-Federal Relations.

In 2005 Weddington became an adjunct professor at the University of Texas. She serves in a number of volunteer positions, including that of board member for the Foundation for Women's Resources, creator of The Women's Museum: An Institute for the Future, and is the author of A Question of Choice (1992).

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