ATW Play Reading: Third Choice by Ray Hill

A newly appointed Supreme Court Justice and a young lawyer collide in Roe v. Wade, reshaping history and redefining personal freedoms.

Third Choice: Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court tells the story of how an Associate Justice finds his own independence. At the center of the story are two unlikely protagonists.

Newly appointed to the bench is the bookish Harry Blackmun, a childhood friend of Chief Justice Burger, chosen to complete the “Nixon Court”. Arguing her first case is Sarah Weddington, a 26-year-old Texan lawyer and a woman with her own experience of a backstreet abortion.

Blackmun struggles to find his place on the Court. He is torn between the liberal Justices who dismiss him and the Chief Justice, who demands his loyalty. But as Blackmun visits abortion clinics and studies the history of abortion law, he confronts the human costs of backroom procedures and begins to question the role he was expected to play.