CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Cecile Richards, a national leader for abortion access and women’s rights who led Planned Parenthood for 12 tumultuous years, has died. She was 67.
Richards died Monday at home “surrounded by family and her ever-loyal dog, Ollie,” her family said in a statement.
“Our hearts are broken today but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives,” the family said.
Richards, the daughter of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in 2023, five years after she left Planned Parenthood.
Though Planned Parenthood also provides birth control, cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted diseases at clinics nationwide, its status as the nation’s leading abortion provider has long made it a target of social conservatives. Under Richards’ leadership, the organization gained in membership, donor support and political clout, and she played a prominent role in pushing back against critics.
In 2015, she spent hours answering hostile questions from Republican U.S. House members who later created an investigative panel to probe Planned Parenthood’s abortion and fetal-tissue policies. In 2021, she warned that the U.S. Supreme Court’s inaction on Texas’ restrictive abortion law could signal the end of judicial checks and balances on the issue. And after the court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, she continued to speak out.
“One day, our children and grandchildren may ask us, ‘When it was all on the line, what did you do?’” she said at the Democratic National Convention in August. “The only acceptable answer is, ‘Everything we could.’”
Born on July 15, 1957, in Waco, Texas, Richards earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from Brown University, where she unfurled a banner from a second floor window during her 1980 graduation ceremony to protest the school’s investments in South Africa.
“One of the more popular buttons of the day was ‘Question Authority,’ and I feel like we did that every single day, and it absolutely set me on my path,” she said in a 2017 address to graduates. “Brown instilled in me the belief that any one of us can change the world and that, in fact, it’s sort of what is expected of us.”
After college, she worked as an organizer for low-wage workers in several states before returning to Texas to help with her mother’s 1990 gubernatorial campaign. In 2004, she was a founder of America Votes, and before joining Planned Parenthood, served as deputy chief of staff for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
“It was my privilege to work directly with Cecile for many years and to I have a front-row seat to her sharp intellect, strategic thinking and relentless effectiveness,” Pelosi said in a statement Monday. “As she ascended to other leadership roles, we never stopped working together to defend the rights of women and working families.”
Outgoing President Joe Biden, who awarded Richards the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November, on Monday called her a “leader of utmost character.”
“Cecile fearlessly led us forward to be the America we say we are,” he said in a statement. “Carrying her mom’s torch for justice, she championed some of our Nation’s most important civil rights causes. She fought for the dignity of workers, defended and advanced women’s reproductive rights and equality, and mobilized our fellow Americans to exercise their power to vote.”
After leaving Planned Parenthood, Richards served as co-chair of American Bridge, which supports liberal causes and conducts opposition research on Republicans. Last fall, she launched a project that used social media to emphasize personal stories about the impact of abortion bans and restrictions.
Alexis McGill Johnson, current president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called Richards an “indomitable force.”
“As we continue to navigate uncharted territory, we will be able to meet the challenges we face in large part because of the movement Cecile built over decades,” she said. “I know, without a doubt, that Cecile would tell us the best way to honor her memory is to suit up — preferably in pink — link arms, and fight like hell for Planned Parenthood patients across the country.”
Richards is survived by her husband, two daughters, a son and one grandson.
In her Democratic convention speech, Richards described the joy of becoming a grandmother in 2023 and called Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign a “celebration of women.”
“As my mother, Gov. Ann Richards, would say, ‘I hear America singing,’” she said. “When women are free to make their own decisions about their lives and to follow our dreams, we are unstoppable.”
