Roe v. Wade lawyer speaks on abortion

By Rachel Green

Daily Staff Reporter

Attorney Sarah Weddington, the prosecuting attorney representing Jane Roe for the 1973 Roe v. Wade trial, said she believes the future of the right to abortion is invested in the appointments that the next president will make during his time in office.

"The makeup of the Supreme Court is the key factor in the future of Roe v. Wade," she said.

About 150 people, mostly law School students, attended Weddington's lecture last night in Hutchins Hall in the Law Quad.

Weddington said several justices will probably be retiring in the next four years, allowing the next U.S. president to appoint justices to these vacancies.

If Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush wins the election, Weddington said, "The people who are very opposed to abortion, who have been heavily backing Bush, are going to say, 'here's what we want for our support,'" referring to any new justices appointed to the Court.

Medical student first-year medical student Ali Mahajerin attended the lecture because he said he might soon be on a obstetrician-gynecologist rotation at University hospitals.

"The next president may be in a position to alter the Supreme Court so abortion rights could be an important issue in the next four years," Mahajerin said. Marharjerin would not comment on whether he was pro-choice or anti-abortion.

Weddington said that, in addition to Supreme Court justices, the next president will appoint the director of the FBI, involved in violence against Abortion Clinics, and the Food and Drug Administration, which recently approved RU-486, the abortion pill.

"A director of the FBI who's against abortion might not put as much effort into protecting abortion clinics," she said.

Weddington said she supports the abortion pill. She said the decision to approve the pill, which has been legal in Europe for several years, was long overdue. "If you go to Europe, if you go to China, this isn't even an issue."

Detailing her involvement in the Roe v. Wade case and her later work with President Jimmy Carter from 1979-1981, Weddington spoke about the importance of her case and its later implications in other trials, including the recent case of Carhart v. Nebraska last July, in which the state Supreme Court banned partial birth abortions.

"The wording of that case was so broad and so vague, that in a 5-4 decision, the court said 'No, you have gone too far," she said.

Second-year law student Tracey Glover said she agrees that the terms of partial birth abortions are misrepresented.

"The term is a bogus one," Glover, a co-chairperson of Law Students for Reproductive Choice, said. "It refers to a procedure and not to a particular time in the pregnancy."

The lecture was chiefly sponsored by Medical Students for Choice and the Women's Law Student Association, with support from Planned Parenthood, Law Students for Reproductive Choice, the Women's Health Project and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

JUSTIN FITZPATRICK/Daily

Sarah Weddinton, the attorney who represented Jane Roe in Roe v. Wade, speaks about the future of abortion last night in Hutchins Hall.