Cecile Richards, a national leader on abortion access and women’s rights who led Planned Parenthood for 12 tumultuous years, has died. She was 67 years old.
Richards died on Monday at her home in New York, “surrounded by her family and her faithful dog, Ollie,” her family said in a statement.
“Our hearts are broken today, but no words can do justice to the joy you 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.
Although Planned Parenthood also provides contraception, cancer screenings and STD tests at clinics across the country, its status as the country’s leading abortion provider has long made it a target of social conservatives. Under Richards’ leadership, the organization gained membership, donor support, and political influence, and played a prominent role in countering critics.
In 2015, she spent hours answering hostile questions from Republican U.S. House members who later created an investigative committee to investigate Planned Parenthood’s abortion and fetal tissue policies. In 2021, she warned that the US Supreme Court’s inaction on Texas’ restrictive abortion law could signal the end of judicial checks and balances on the issue. 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: Whatever we could.”
Born on July 15, 1957, in Waco, Texas, Richards earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Brown University, where she raised a banner from a second-floor window during her 1980 graduation ceremony in protest of the school’s investments in South Africa.
“One of the most popular buttons that day was ‘Question Authority,’ and I feel like we did that every day, and it definitely set me on my path,” she said in a 2017 speech to graduates. “Brown instilled in me the belief that any one of us can change the world, and that is, in fact, what is expected of us.”
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After college, she worked as an organizer for low-wage workers in several states before returning to Texas to help with her mother’s gubernatorial campaign in 1990. In 2004, she was a founder of America Vote, and before joining Planned Parenthood, she served as deputy chief of staff. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
“I have had the privilege of working directly with Cecile for many years, and have had a front-row seat to her sharp intelligence, strategic thinking, and relentless effectiveness,” Pelosi said in a statement Monday. “As she ascended to other leadership roles, we never stopped working together to advocate for the rights of women and working families.”
Outgoing President Joe Biden, who awarded Richards the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November, called her “a leader of the utmost character.”
“Cecile fearlessly led us forward to become the America we say we are,” he said in a statement issued about an hour before Donald Trump was sworn in as president. “Carrying her mother’s torch for justice, she has championed some of our country’s most important civil rights cases. She has fought for the dignity of workers, defended and promoted 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 uses social media to underscore personal stories about the impact of abortion bans and restrictions.
Alexis McGill Johnson, current president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called Richards an “invincible 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 that Cecil has built over decades,” she said. “I know, without a doubt, that Cecile would tell us that the best way to honor her memory is to put on a suit — preferably pink — link arms, and fight like hell for Planned Parenthood patients across the country.”
Richards is survived by her husband, two daughters, one son and one grandson.
In her speech to the Democratic Convention, Richards described the joy of becoming a grandmother in 2023, and described Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign as a “celebration of women.”
“As my mother, Governor Ann Richards, used to say, ‘I hear America singing,’” she said. “When women have the freedom to make their own decisions about their lives and follow their dreams, we are unstoppable.”
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