As 2021 comes to an end, we pay tribute to and remember the lives lost. Texas lawyer Sarah Weddington, who won the landmark court case Roe v. Wade passed away “after a series of health issues” in her Austin home Sunday, former student and friend Susan Hays shared on Twitter. Weddington, who died at the age of 76, fought the historic Supreme Court case at the age of 26, only five years after she graduated from law school, CNN reported.
She made history for not only helping to make abortion legal across the country, but also for being one of the youngest people to ever represent someone in a Supreme Court case. Her death comes as the Supreme Court may accept a new law on abortion from Mississippi in which abortions would be barred 15 weeks after pregnancy, even in cases of rape or incest. The ruling, expected in June, could cause millions of women to lose abortion access.