WASHINGTON – Glenn Beck, conservative radio host and co-founder of Irving-based Blaze Media, said he is now the owner of an archive detailing the path to securing abortion rights in Roe vs. Wade.
The collection belonged to Linda Coffee, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of “Jane Roe,” the Dallas woman blocked from terminating her pregnancy under a Texas ban the Supreme Court struck down in 1973.
“Roe v. Wade is history, and now that history is in the hands of a pro-life conservative,” Beck said on his radio show announcing the purchase. “If we can use this to help expose this culture of death and Moloch worship, any monetary price we could personally pay would be worth it.”
The landmark lasted 49 years, until a much different Supreme Court struck down constitutional protection for abortion rights last June.
The collection includes nearly 150 mementos and documents from the landmark case, including the original affidavit signed by plaintiff Norma McCorvey, known throughout the litigation as Jane Roe, and two quill pens Coffee received when she argued the case at the Supreme Court.
Coffee placed the items up for sale through Los Angeles auction house Nate D. Sanders Auctions on March 3, the 53rd anniversary of when Coffee filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Bidding started at $50,000. The auction house announced on Monday that the collection sold for $615,633 to an anonymous buyer.
On Thursday, TheBlaze revealed the buyer’s identity. Beck discussed the purchase on his talk show, saying he’d waited until he had things “in-hand.”
Along with the quills and original affidavit, Beck now owns a letter from Coffee to co-counsel Sarah Weddington, who died in 2021 at age 76, suggesting they work on the case together.
The collection also includes Coffee’s Texas law license, obtained soon after she graduated from law school at the University of Texas in 1968.
Just two years later, she filed Roe with a $15 filing fee. That receipt is also included in the collection.
“This is one of the most significant legal archives in American history, given the profound impact of Roe v. Wade,” auction owner Nate Sanders said in a statement after the sale. “Not only did the case become one of the most prominent Supreme Court decisions of all-time, profoundly impacting life for American women, it also ignited a counter-debate that has polarized the nation since 1973.”
The Supreme Court ruling last June that overturned Roe left abortion policy to the states, leading to a patchwork of bans and restrictions.
In Texas, performing an abortion has been punishable by life in prison since August. The Legislature approved that ban in 2021, to be triggered in the event Roe was overturned.
Coffee, who lives in Mineola in East Texas, has urged those fighting legal battles for abortion access to carry on.
In an interview with D Magazine before the purchase, Coffee and her partner Rebecca Hartt said they wanted to get the collection to the next generation in light of Coffee’s previous health issues and the reversal of Roe last June.
In 2020 Beck co-founded the American Journey Experience museum in Irving. The museum holds over 160,000 artifacts including Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wheelchair, original letters from George Washington and an Aitken Bible from 1782, TheBlaze reported following the museum’s opening.
While he said a final exhibition space had not been decided, he said the collection will be securely stored and preserved.
However, Beck said he plans to temporarily debut the archive in St. George, Utah in the summer as part of “The Blueprints of Freedom” exhibit that includes documents from the time of Christopher Columbus to today.
“The Roe archive’s inclusion in the exhibit will underscore that Coffee’s bloody legacy has been undone in the service of life and a proper reading of the Constitution,” Beck said on his show.
