Cécile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, dies at 67

Cécile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood and feminist activist, died Monday of aggressive brain cancer, her family confirmed in a statement. She was 67 years old. Richards, the daughter of the former Democratic governor of Texas, was one of the nation’s most prominent abortion rights advocates.

“This morning, our beloved Cécile died at home, surrounded by her family and her always faithful dog, Ollie. Our hearts are broken today but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives,” the family wrote.

Even after her glioblastoma diagnosis in 2023, Richards remained a fixture in Democratic politics. In August, she contributed to Texas’ ceremonial votes at the Democratic National Convention to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, and delivered one of the event’s speeches focused on reproductive rights.

“When women are free to make their own decisions about their lives and achieve their dreams, we are unstoppable,” she said in her August 21 speech. “But when Roe v. Wade was overturned, a generation of young people lost that freedom.”

In late October, Richards told the 19th that she voted early in New York for Harris, adding that she told an election worker that she had “waited for this opportunity my whole life.”

“It was so powerful to vote for Kamala and know that young women and men are going to vote for Kamala for the first time,” she said.

Harris released a statement Monday commemorating Richards. These remarks were Harris’ last official statement as vice president.

“Cécile led with heart, fearlessness and courage the fight for women’s rights and the dignity of every woman to make decisions about her own body,” Harris said. “She fought tirelessly on behalf of all women, and today millions of people across the country benefit from her work. »

Richards had recently helped launch Abortion in America, a website dedicated to sharing stories of people who sought the procedure after the fall of Roe v. Wade, as well as a chatbot called Charley, which provided information on where and how people could terminate their pregnancies. She also served as co-chair of American Bridge, a liberal super PAC and opposition research group.

Richards entered politics as a teenager, working at age 16 on a campaign to elect Sarah Weddington, the attorney who opposed Texas’ abortion ban in Roe v . Wade, in the state legislature. As an undergraduate at Brown University, she joined student activist efforts to push the university to withdraw its endowments from companies working in apartheid South Africa.

In her 20s, she worked in labor organizing, leading campaigns for nursing home workers and garment workers, before returning to Texas in 1990 to work on her mother’s bid for governor. After his mother’s term, Richards eventually moved to Washington, DC.

It was Richards’ work at Planned Parenthood, which she led from 2006 to 2018, the second-longest stretch that one person led the organization, that propelled it into the national spotlight.

Richards’ tenure came as anti-abortion efforts reached a fever pitch, overlapping with attempts by Republican-led state legislatures to pass laws that could restrict access to abortion and cut funding for reproductive health care providers, including in her home state of Texas. Years later, she would describe this period as “a turning point in the fight for access to abortion.”

In 2013, as Texas lawmakers worked to pass an omnibus bill containing numerous restrictions on abortion, Richards joined protesters in the state Capitol building, encouraging supporters of the abortion rights to shout loud enough to interrupt state legislative proceedings. Their efforts paid off, albeit temporarily: The noise prevented lawmakers from passing the bill before the midnight deadline, a moment broadcast on a viral Texas Tribune livestream. (The bill ultimately passed in a subsequent legislative session, before being struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016.)

“His support really helped put everything together,” Occupy Austin member Dave Cortez told the Texas Tribune at the time.

Under Richards, Planned Parenthood – now inextricable from the Democratic Party, which largely supports abortion rights – has become more politically active. In 2008, he supported Barack Obama for president, the second time he dabbled in presidential politics. In 2016, he issued his first-ever primary endorsement, throwing his support behind Hillary Clinton, a longtime supporter of reproductive rights. Richards argued that the measures were not partisan, but rather aimed at supporting politicians who care about reproductive rights.

Richards remained involved in progressive politics after leaving Planned Parenthood, co-founding the feminist organization Supermajority in 2019. The organization focuses on training people to advocate for women’s equality. Richards left the Supermajority at the end of 2020.

As abortion rights came under fire – and especially with the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 – Richards became a staunch defender of abortion rights. In the months before Roe was overturned, she argued in an opinion piece in the New York Times that Republicans had traded “women’s rights for political opportunism.”

“If I have one regret from my time leading Planned Parenthood, it’s that we believed that providing lifesaving health care, with public opinion on our side, would be enough to overcome the political onslaught she wrote in the 2022 article.

Most recently, she told the 19th that she thought it would be years before the country could restore abortion rights.

“In all honesty, I fear it will take us a long time to restore the rights we once had,” she said. “For people facing challenges based on race, geography, income, etc., these inequalities are deep-rooted, intersectional, and much harder to eradicate. We must be ready for a fight that will last several years.

Grace Panetta contributed to this report