Sarah Weddington, lawyer who argued Roe v. Wade, dies at 76

Weddington’s death comes as the Supreme Court is considering a case over Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy that's widely considered to be most serious challenge in years to the Roe decision

Sarah Weddington, a Texas lawyer who as a 26-year-old successfully argued the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court, died on December 26. She was 76.

Susan Hays, Weddington’s former student and colleague, said she died in her sleep early on the morning of December 26 at her Austin home. Weddington had been in poor health for some time and it was not immediately clear what caused her death, Ms. Hays told The Associated Press.

Raised as a minister's daughter in the West Texas city of Abilene, Weddington attended law school at the University of Texas. A couple years after graduating, she and a former classmate, Linda Coffee, brought a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman challenging a state law that largely banned abortions.