Cecile Richards has spent over 30 years advocating for women’s reproductive rights. Now, she has received the highest civilian honor for that work.
President Joe Biden awarded the former Planned Parenthood president with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a private ceremony on Wednesday, commemorating Richards for her social justice efforts throughout her career. With “absolute courage,” Richards “fearlessly leads us forward to be the America we say we are – a nation of freedom,” Biden wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Through her work to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women’s reproductive rights and equality, and mobilize Americans to exercise their power to vote, she has carved an inspiring legacy,” Biden continued.
The award comes at a time when many U.S. women are concerned about the erosion of rights including that of reproductive freedoms. Already, numerous states have rolled back abortion rights following the 2022 overturn of Roe v Wade. And last month, Vice President-elect JD Vance said it was likely that incoming President Donald Trump would defund Planned Parenthood as a result of the group’s pro-abortion positions.
Following her recognition, Richards, who stepped down from Planned Parenthood in 2018 and is the cofounder of Charley Chatbot, an online tool helping provide women with resources for abortion care, thanked Biden, along with First Lady Jill Biden, for their efforts in supporting women’s health and rights.
“Such an honor representing abortion rights and the need for health care for all,” Richards wrote in a post on X.
In that same post, she also wrote, “here’s the work ahead.” She recently told the 19th that she fears “it will take us a long time to restore the rights we once had,” and that “we should be ready for a multi-year fight.”
Growing up in a liberal family, Richards was exposed to the fight for democracy early in life — her father was a civil rights attorney while her mother, Ann Richards, served as the governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. While just a teenager in 1972, Richards worked alongside her mother on a state-assembly campaign for Sarah Weddington, the same woman who argued Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court.
After attending Brown University, Richards went on to become a labor organizer and encouraged hospitality workers to join unions.
Later, as president of Planned Parenthood, Richards became a high-profile figure in the face of strong anti-abortion opposition. In 2015, she testified to the U.S. House of Representatives against Republicans threatening a government shutdown unless funding for the organization ceased, following the release of a later discredited video of Planned Parenthood staff agreeing to illegally sell fetal tissue.
“This isn’t about Planned Parenthood,” Richards said before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “It’s about allowing women in this country…to make their own decision about their pregnancies, about their health care, and about where they get services.”
Aside from leading Planned Parenthood, Richards is founder of the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit she created in 1995 that consists of more than 150,000 community leaders who “support religious freedom, individual liberties and public education,” its website states. She also previously served as the founding president of America Votes, a progressive hub of more than 400 state and national partners
.Women’s reproductive rights are on the line more than they’ve ever been amid former President Donald Trump’s re-election, with agendas like Project 2025 limiting these freedoms. In this ongoing battle, Richards says she will never stop fighting. “We have important work ahead of us, and we are just getting started,” she wrote one day after the election.
