Cecile Richards, the longtime head of Planned Parenthood and feminist activist, has died at 67 after a battle with cancer.
Richards was also the daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards.
"This morning our beloved Cecile passed away at home, surrounded by her family and her ever-loyal dog, Ollie. Our hearts are broken today but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives," her family wrote in a statement sharing the news of her death.
Richards had glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer, which she revealed publicly in January 2024.
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She served as the head of Planned Parenthood and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund for a dozen years, stepping down in 2018. Even after her diagnosis she continued to advocate for abortion rights, working on a bot she co-created called Charley that provided information on how to end pregnancies safely, according to an article in New York magazine’s The Cut when she disclosed her illness.
Richards, the eldest daughter of Ann and David Richards, a civil rights lawyer, got an early start as an activist. The first political campaign she volunteered for as a teenager was for a young woman running for the Texas state legislator. Her name? Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who had argued Roe v. Wade before the U.S Supreme Court and won.
“So my roots in the reproductive rights movement go back to being a teenager,” she told the Ford Foundation, where she was on the Board of Trustees. “It’s been an issue I’ve cared about my entire life.”
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She graduated from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and met her husband, Kirk Adams, helping hotel workers in New Orleans to try to unionize. She moved to Texas in the 1980s while she was pregnant with twins to help her mother’s campaign for governor and was later deputy chief of staff for the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, New York magazine wrote.
After her tenure at Planned Parenthood, she and two other woman created a new organization called Supermajority. With Charley, which she co-founded with Planned Parenthood’s former chief strategy officer, she is helping show where to get an appointment for an abortion and how to get pills by mail.
Her memoir is called “Make Trouble.” She was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2011 and 2012, according to the ACLU.
Her family wrote, "We are grateful to the doctors and health care workers who provided her excellent care and the friends, family, and well-wishers who have been by her side during this challenging time."
Those who would like to celebrate Richards' legacy should "put on some New Orleans jazz, gather with friends and family over a good meal," they said.
They asked supporters to remember one of Richards' favorite phrases "It’s not hard to imagine future generations one day asking: ‘When there was so much at stake for our country, what did you do?’ The only acceptable answer is: ‘Everything we could.’”
The note was signed by her family.
President Joe Biden, getting ready to leave the White House Monday, released a statement honoring Richards' legacy.
“Cecile fearlessly led us forward to be the America we say we are," he wrote. "Carrying her mom’s torch for justice, she championed some of our nation's most important civil rights causes.”
“She was a leader of utmost character and I know that her legacy will continue to inspire generations to come.”
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