East Texan helped argue original Roe vs. Wade

MINEOLA — An East Texas woman who helped argue the original Roe vs. Wade case before the Supreme Court reflects on the court’s reversal of the 1973 decision. Linda Coffee is now 79 years old and lives in Mineola. She and Sarah Weddington represented Norma McCorvey, then known as “Jane Roe”, in the court case filed in Dallas. Coffee says “it’s going to make it, at a minimum, a lot more expensive for women who want to have an abortion.” Texas already bans abortions past six weeks or after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The state’s “trigger” law will ban abortions entirely except in rare cases when the mother’s life is in danger, 30 days after the Supreme Court releases its official judgement on Roe v. Wade. She also sees “almost never-ending lawsuits” resulting from Friday’s landmark decision.