Linda Coffey Rowe’s abortion case against Wade auctioned for $615,000

WASHINGTON. An archive detailing the path to protecting abortion rights in Roe v. Wade was auctioned for $615,633.

A collection of nearly 150 memoirs and documents from the landmark case belonged to Linda Coffey, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of “Jane Roe,” a Dallas woman who was prevented from having an abortion under a Texas ban that the Supreme Court overthrew in 1973.

The previously unknown buyer now has the original affidavit signed by plaintiff Norma McCorvey, known as Rowe during the trial, and two goose pens Coffey received when she pleaded her case in the Supreme Court.

It also includes a letter from Coffey to his co-adviser Sarah Weddington, who died in 2021 at the age of 76, suggesting that they work together on the case.

“You would consider becoming a co-counsel if a lawsuit is actually filed. It has always been much more fun for me to work with someone on a case like this,” Coffey wrote in a 1969 letter.

Los Angeles-based Nate D. Sanders Auctions announced the sale on Monday. The auction ended on Friday.

McCorvey was 22 and unmarried in 1969 when the abortion lawsuit began. She died in 2017 after a change of heart that forced her to join forces with groups fighting to overturn the decision that bore her pseudonym.

Last June, the Supreme Court overturned Row, ending nearly half a century of constitutional protection for the right to abortion. This decision left abortion laws up to the states and resulted in a patchwork of abortion bans and restrictions across the country.

In Texas, performing an abortion is now punishable by life in prison under a ban passed by the legislature in 2021 that will take effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe’s decision. The ban went into effect in August.

Coffee, who lives in Mineola, East Texas, urged those leading the legal battle over access to abortion to continue.

“I’m 80 now and I just want to make sure my collection is available to people long after I’m gone,” she said in an interview with Texas Monthly published last week. “Of course, all those memories are bittersweet now.”

A recently auctioned file includes Coffey’s Texas license, obtained shortly after she graduated from the University of Texas with a law degree in 1968.

Just two years later, he sued Rowe in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, paying a $15 filing fee.

This receipt is also included in the collection.

“This is one of the most significant lawsuits in American history given the enormous impact of Roe v. Wade,” auction owner Nate Sanders said in a statement. “This case not only became one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of all time, profoundly impacting the lives of American women, but also sparked a counter-debate that has polarized the nation since 1973.”

Thanks for reading Dallas Press News

Content and Photo credit go to Texas Standard

Read the full article on Texas Standard News