Born Sarah Ragle in Abilene, Texas, Weddington is the daughter of Lena Catherine and The Rev. Herbert Doyle Ragle, a Methodist minister. As a child, she was drum major of her junior high band, president of the Methodist youth fellowship at her church, played the organ, sang in the church choir and rode horses. Weddington graduated from high school two years early and then graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from McMurry University. She is a member of Sigma Kappa sorority. In 1964, she entered the University of Texas Law School. In 1967, during her third year of law school, Weddington conceived with her lover Ron Weddington and travelled to Mexico for an illegal abortion. She received her J.D. that same year, graduating in the top quarter of her class. From 1968 to 1974, she was married to Weddington. Weddington holds honorary doctorates from McMurry University, Hamilton College, Austin College, Southwestern University and Nova Southeastern University.
''Roe v. Wade''
After graduating, Weddington found it difficult to find a job with a law firm. She instead joined a group of graduate students at University of Texas-Austin that were researching ways to challenge various anti-abortion statutes. Soon after, a pregnant woman named Norma McCorvey visited a local attorney seeking an abortion. The attorney instead assisted McCorvey with handing over her child for adoption and after doing so, referred McCorvey to Weddington and Linda Coffee. In March 1970, Weddington and her co-counsel filed suit against Henry Wade, the Dallas district attorney and the person responsible for enforcing the anti-abortion statute. McCorvey became the landmark plaintiff and was referred in the legal documents as "Jane Roe" to protect her identity. Weddington first stated her case in front of a three-judge district court on May 1970 in Dallas. The district court agreed that the Texas abortion laws were unconstitutional, but the state appealed the decision, landing it before the United States Supreme Court. Weddington appeared before the Supreme Court in 1971 and again in the fall of 1972. Her argument was based on the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th and 14thamendments, as well as the Court's previous decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which legalized the sale of contraceptives based on the right of privacy. The Court's decision was ultimately handed down in January 1973, overturning Texas’ abortion law by a 7-2 majority and legalizing abortion within the first trimester of pregnancy. In 1992, Weddington compiled her experiences with the case and interviews with the people involved into a book titled A Question of Choice.
