\u201cWe didn\u2019t have an agenda,\u201d Hines said in the documentary of the group\u2019s early days. \u201cIt was just 10 to 15 women talking about things, topics that women had never talked about before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over time, the group began to identify birth control access as a key factor that could give women more agency. They launched a campus birth control information center at UT, operating out of a makeshift, closet-like space that they hammered together themselves inside the offices of The Rag, an underground student newspaper.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771847108_4_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Barbara Hines and Victoria Foe sit for an interview about the documentary Lone Star Three.<\/p>\n
At the time, it was difficult to get a prescription for birth control if you were unmarried. Smith, Foe and Hines helped refer women to trusted physicians.<\/p>\n
But the group quickly began to encounter women who were pregnant \u201cand desperate not to be,\u201d Foe said. They heard about cases of dangerous, self-managed abortions. Foe and Smith traveled to Mexico and established a relationship with a doctor who agreed to discreetly treat clients referred by the group. Occasionally, members of the group even gave women rides to the clinic.<\/p>\n
The students knew they might be taking on some legal risk; abortion was illegal in Texas. So they sought the advice of one of the only female lawyers they knew of in Austin at the time \u2014 Sarah Weddington<\/a>. Learning about the group\u2019s experiences inspired Weddington to take the case of Norma McCorvey, also known by the pseudonym \u201cJane Roe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was their efforts that really got me involved with the issue and really did directly lead to Roe v. Wade,\u201d Weddington says in the film.<\/p>\n Wendy Richardson, the writer and co-producer of Lone Star Three, came to the story after wondering at how Weddington \u2014 a young, female lawyer from Texas \u2014 had become the lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. When she discovered Weddington\u2019s connection to the UT students, she knew she wanted to make a film about them.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a truly Austin story,\u201d Richardson told KUT. \u201cEveryone I asked, no one knew about them. No one knew how Roe originated or the fact that it was in Austin. It just seemed like we uncovered kind of this treasure of women\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n The project took on additional significance for Richardson after Roe was overturned in 2022. It did for Hines, too.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope [viewers] take away that young people are capable of many things and are very fearless, and that social change is a long-term struggle,\u201d said Hines, who went on to become an immigration rights attorney. \u201cI’m hoping that the younger generation will continue to keep this really important issue alive.\u201d<\/p>\n