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How did Sarah Weddington die? 'Jane Roe' lawyer in landmark abortion case was 76

Weddington took the controversial case when she was only 26 years old and just five years removed from law school

The attorney who represented 'Jane Roe' Norma McCorvey in the Roe v. Wade abortion case died in her home in Texas on Sunday, December 26. Sarah Weddington, the daughter of a Methodist minister, was 76. According to Susan Hays, Weddington’s former student and colleague, she died in her sleep at her Austin home. Weddington had been unwell for quite some, but her cause of death is yet to be revealed. 

"Sarah Weddington was a Texas giant. 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," Rep John Bucy III wrote on Twitter. 

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"It was my pleasure to meet Sarah, work with her, and present her with the Gov. Mark White Courage in Service Award from the @wilcodems when I was party chair. May she rest in power. And may we honor her by continuing to fight for a Texas as good as its promise," he added.

Weddington took the controversial case when she was only 26 years old and just five years removed from law school. She was among five women out of a class of 1,600 to graduate with a law degree from the University of Texas in 1967. 

When Norma McCorvey sued to demand the right to abort an unwanted pregnancy, Texas native Weddington took up before the Supreme Court her challenge to the Lone Star State’s abortion restrictions. Weddington won the 1973 ruling that urged that abortion be deemed legal in the US. Back then, the court ruled 7-2 in McCorvey’s favor. Weddington went on to become the first woman elected to the Texas House of Representatives serving Austin while she was still arguing Roe v. Wade in 1972.

On December 1, the Supreme Court appeared prepared to uphold a Mississippi law that would ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This was set to be a very dramatic break from as many as 50 years of rulings. Ninety minutes of oral arguments were heard by the justices. Most of the conservative justices of the court seemed to be ready to discard the court's previous standard preventing states from banning abortion before a fetus becomes viable. This apparently happens at about 24 weeks into a pregnancy. The argument, however, did not make it very clear whether the court would explicitly overturn its abortion precedents, including Roe v Wade.

The hearing was opened by Mississippi's solicitor general, who said that 1973's Roe v Wade and 1992's related Planned Parenthood v. Casey cases "haunt" the country. "They have no basis in the constitution; they have no home in our history or our traditions. They've damaged the democratic process," said Scott Stewart.  Stewart said that in the past, elected officials in the states should have been allowed to set the rules, but instead, those past generations of judges happened to overstep in abortion cases. He did not really get any pushback from the court's conservatives.