The abortion case—the kernel of it—really started in Austin. There was a whole series of women here who were involved in problem-pregnancy counseling at the YWCA near campus. I had gone to a garage sale one day, and one of the women said to me, “Do you know what’s happening?” I said, “Well, I’m not sure,” and she said, “We’ve got an awful lot oF women from Austin who are going to Mexico for abortions, and some of them are coming back with real problems. And so, she said: “We really want to expand our counseling, tell people where the good places are, what states there are with clinics they could go to, and about any doctors we know who’ll do procedures, and under what conditions. And if we did that, would we be prosecuted?” And so I began to do the research for Roe v. Wade.
As we got into the case, there were a lot of people here in Austin who were very helpful. There were several members of the faculty of the law school who did moot courts with me, helping me think through what were the questions the Supreme Court might ask and how I would answer them.
I actually was here in Austin when I heard about the decision. I believe that was also the day LBJ died, so there were two big national stories out of Austin that day. I’d just been elected to the Legislature, was at home getting ready to go over to the session, when a friend called and said “Congratulations!” I said “What?” And she said “You won your case!” She’d heard it on the radio that morning.
It was almost like when people on game shows win a million dollars—the same sort of spirit of “Can you believe it?” It was the sheer exhilaration of having spent three years of your life on one issue, one case. And then, of course, I started getting all the press calls—which was a real problem, because I didn’t know what the opinion said. So I had to call quickly up to Washington to get someone to go over to the court and read the opinion and call me back to tell me what it said.
