
On Monday, hours before Donald Trump was inaugurated as America’s 47th president, Cecile Richards, a lifelong activist, political organizer and the head of Planned Parenthood from 2006 to 2018, passed away from glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer.
Richards grew up in Texas, the daughter of David Richards, a lawyer, and Ann Richards, the former Democratic governor of Texas. She spent years working as a labor organizer, and in 2004 became a founder of America Votes, an organization dedicated to promoting progressive issues. Richards served as the deputy chief of staff to California Democrat Nancy Pelosi during the representative’s tenure as minority whip in 2001. Pelosi once said of Richards, “she should be president” – high praise from one of America’s longest serving congresswomen.
Richards rose to new heights of national prominence when she became the president of Planned Parenthood in 2006. She oversaw the organization during a period when women’s reproductive rights came under increasing attack from Republicans, particularly under the presidency of George W. Bush and Trump’s first term.
Despite Republican efforts to block abortion, Richards managed to grow Planned Parenthood into the nation’s largest provider of reproductive and sexual care. Under her leadership, the organization grew its base of support to over 11 million volunteers and donors, up from 2.5 million.
But it wasn’t without setbacks. Her home state of Texas led a particularly vicious battle against Planned Parenthood’s government support – at first successfully stripping the organization of funding for contraception programs, for breast and cervical cancer screenings, as well as for H.I.V prevention. Then in 2021, in advance of the Supreme Court overturning Roe V. Wade, Texas enacted a trigger ban on abortion, ultimately outlawing abortion altogether, even in the case of rape or incest, in 2022.
That same year, a few months before Roe V. Wade was overturned, Richards wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times titled, “The One Regret From My Time Leading Planned Parenthood.” In the essay, Richards recounts the slow and corrosive manner in which Republicans chipped away women’s basic human rights. She recalled, “one of the most surreal moments of my life” was when Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner asked to meet her before President Trump’s first inauguration. The daughter and son-in-law of the president told her that if Planned Parenthood stopped providing abortions, “they promised, not only would Mr. Trump stop the organization from being defunded – he might just increase funding for Planned Parenthood.” Richards wrote that it was then she understood that, “what they really wanted, more than anything, was for Planned Parenthood to get out of politics.”
Stay out of politics, she did not. In 2018, Richards stepped down from her leadership position at Planned Parenthood so that she could focus on mobilizing female voters across the country. Even after her 2023 cancer diagnosis, she kept fighting – launching a project called Abortion in America, which through videos on Instagram and TikTok aims to share the first hand stories of women who were denied abortions. She also launched a chatbot named Charley that helps women seeking abortion find access to care.
This past November, Richards spoke proudly of casting her vote for Kamala Harris, telling The 19th “I had been waiting for this chance all my life.” She did not get to see America elect its first female president, and her passing hours before Trump’s second inauguration feels profoundly poignant. May her legacy serve to inspire the next generation of American women, who may soon be fighting once again for sexual and reproductive rights.