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| Pro Life Demonstrators - 1973 |
David Beckwith, who scored a scoop for Time magazine in 1973 when he reported the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade abortion-rights ruling hours before it was officially announced, a feat that gained new attention this year after a draft of the court’s opinion overturning Roe was leaked in advance, died on Sunday at his home in Austin, Texas. He was 79, reports The NY Times.
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| David Beckwith |
In May, about two months before the Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the news outlet Politico published Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft opinion in the case.
The leak was widely described as an unprecedented violation of the court’s rules. But as several news organizations noted, Mr. Beckwith had achieved a similar result 49 years earlier with a Time article headlined “Abortion on Demand,” breaking the news about Roe.
Although the timing of Mr. Beckwith’s scoop was largely accidental, its substance was unassailable, a product of rock-solid reporting by a relative newcomer to Time’s Washington bureau.
Beckwith, who joined Time after graduating from the University of Texas School of Law in 1971, was covering legal affairs in July 1972 when a Washington Post article caught his eye.
Appearing without a byline, the Post article reported from a detailed inside perspective on the fierce debate among the justices over the pending abortion ruling.
Beckwith began his own reporting, interviewing more than a dozen people — justices, clerks and others connected to the court.
By January 1973, he knew the decision was imminent and began writing an article that added context and background to examine the abortion issue more broadly for Time’s millions of readers.
The leak was widely described as an unprecedented violation of the court’s rules. But as several news organizations noted, Mr. Beckwith had achieved a similar result 49 years earlier with a Time article headlined “Abortion on Demand,” breaking the news about Roe.
Although the timing of Mr. Beckwith’s scoop was largely accidental, its substance was unassailable, a product of rock-solid reporting by a relative newcomer to Time’s Washington bureau.
Appearing without a byline, the Post article reported from a detailed inside perspective on the fierce debate among the justices over the pending abortion ruling.
Beckwith began his own reporting, interviewing more than a dozen people — justices, clerks and others connected to the court.
By January 1973, he knew the decision was imminent and began writing an article that added context and background to examine the abortion issue more broadly for Time’s millions of readers.
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