AUSTIN, Texas — Linda Coffee was in her mid-20s and barely out of law school when she and former classmate Sarah Weddington stunned the legal establishment—and much of America—by successfully arguing Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in 1973.
Weddington died in December, leaving Coffee as the only surviving member of the legal team that won that far-reaching victory. Now 79 and decades into a quiet retirement in the East Texas town of Mineola, Coffee anticipates being plucked from seclusion by reporters and legal scholars if the high court, as expected, reverses its Roe ruling in the coming weeks.
Because Roe’s legal roots were planted in a Dallas courtroom, Texas could be described as the starting point for a half-century of legalized abortions in America. But in the decades since the decision, Republicans have steadily toppled Democrats to take over the state’s power structure.
