Thank You, Cecile

On Monday, Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood and a defender of abortion rights, died. She was 67. The cause was brain cancer. 

Richards started getting involved in politics as a teenager. She was a lifelong activist, working in labor organizing before heading to D.C. to support her mother's—Ann Richards—gubernatorial bid. 

In 2006, Richards became the highly-visible president of Planned Parenthood—the work for which she is best known. She stepped into the role as anti-abortion efforts reached “fever pitch” according to The 19th—as Republican legislatures were attempting to curtail abortion access and pull funding altogether. Under Richards' tenure, Planned Parenthood became far more politically active.

Even after she stepped down from Planned Parenthood in 2018, Richards remained both politically active and vocal. 

Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, for example, Richards wrote in The New York Times of Republicans’ willingness to trade “away people’s lives for political power.”

“Looking back on the last 20 years, I see that I wasn’t cynical enough,” she wrote in The Times in January 2022. “I had faith that if we provided excellent health care and showed how access to reproductive rights had helped women, as well as our economy, and if we kept most of the country on our side, this, too, would pass. I was wrong. As a movement, I know we couldn’t have worked any harder, but maybe we could have been tougher.”

In late October, Richards told The 19th she had voted early for Kamala Harris, adding that she had “waited for this chance all my life.”

On Monday, Harris released a statement noting, “Cecile led with heart, fearlessness, and courage on the frontlines of the fight for women’s rights and the dignity of every woman to make decisions about their own body. She fought tirelessly on behalf of all women, and today millions across the nation benefit from her work.”

The remarks, according to The 19th, were Harris’s last official statement as vice president.