state appealed the decision, landing it before the United States Supreme Court. In 1971 and again in the fall of 1972, Weddington appeared before the Supreme Court . At the time of her first Supreme Court presentation, Weddington was 26 years old and had never tried a legal case. Her argument was based on the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, and 14th amendments, as well as the Court's previous decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which legalized the sale of contraceptives based on the right of privacy. In January 1973, the Court's decision was ultimately handed down, overturning Texas’ abortion law by a 7-2 majority and legalizing abortion throughout the United States. McCorvey, the lead plaintiff, claimed at the time that she had been raped, although she later recanted that claim and said she had wanted an abortion for economic reasons. During the course of the Roe v. Wade litigation, she gave birth and put the baby up for adoption. Rape was never an issue in the litigation or in the Supreme Court decision. In a 1993 speech at the Institute for Educational Ethics in Oklahoma, Weddington discussed how she presented McCorvey during the lawsuit: “My conduct may not have been totally ethical. But I did it for what I thought were good reasons." In a 2018 interview with Time, she said McCorvey was "a changeable person", adding "the problem I had was trying to tell when she was telling the truth and when she wasn't. ... I was very careful in drafting the materials that were filed with the court to be sure I only put in things I was sure were accurate." In 1989, Weddington was portrayed by Amy Madigan in the television film Roe vs. Wade. In 1992, Weddington compiled her experiences with the case and interviews with the people involved into a book titled A Question of Choice. By the time Roe v. Wade was decided in January 1973, Weddington was elected to the Texas House of Representatives and subsequently reelected another two terms. Weddington attended the historic 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston as a Texas delegate speaking on the resolution of women's reproductive freedom. In 1977, US President Jimmy Carter's administration chose Weddington to serve in the United States Department of Agriculture. and from 1978 to 1981 she served as his assistant. From 1981 to 1990 she was a lecturer at Texas Woman's University. She