Thirty-four years ago, Sarah Weddington was a 27-year-old lawyer who had tried uncontested divorces and little else, when she won the case that legalized abortion in the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Weddington recalled she could not sleep the day before she walked up the marble steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to argue Roe v. Wade, a case that remains controversial today.

Hundred reporters were in the packed courtroom, ready to take notes, she recalled.

“’I hope I find the words that will be helpful,’” she remembered thinking to herself as the Supreme Court Justices marched into the courtroom in their black robes.

These were among the recollections Weddington shared Thursday before 200 pro-choice activists and elected officials at a luncheon at the Meritage Resort at Napa. The lunch was part of a symposium NARAL Pro-Choice California Foundation organized for pro-choice activists in Sonoma and Napa counties.

Weddington, who became emotional when she spoke of her longtime friend and fellow activist Molly Ivins, the liberal columnist from Texas who died Wednesday, urged the audience to continue the work in the pro-choice movement.

“I am historical,” Weddington told her audience. “But you are the future.”

Abortion became legal in California and New York before Roe v. Wade, she also noted.

“If the worst came to happen,” she said, referring to a possible reversal of Roe v. Wade, “we would look again at California.”

“There is so much today that’s really worrisome,” she told the gathering.

After all, the U.S. Supreme Court — with two new members — has yet to rule on two abortion cases heard in November.

While she hinted she expects Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr. to side with conservative justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, she seemed less certain on how Chief Justice John Roberts will rule.

“I personally believe that (Roberts) is personally opposed to Roe,” Weddington said after the event. “But he said a lot of things that would indicate he’s very conscious of his role as a justice and how that is separate from individual opinions.”

“I’m very cautiously concerned … because until we get an opinion that he’s involved in, we can’t really know.”

After her speech, Weddington signed autographs and posed for pictures with members in the audience.

“She’s part of history,” said retired high school counselor Carol Adams of Healdsburg as she waited to speak to Weddington.

Young women have to have the right to choose, she said. “It’s the choice. It’s a big piece of democracy.”