By Shefali Luthra, The nineteenth
Cecile Richards, the previous president of Deliberate Parenthood and feminist activist, died Monday of an aggressive mind most cancers, her household confirmed in a press release. She was 67. Richards, the daughter of the previous Democratic Texas governor, was one of many nation’s most distinguished advocates for abortion rights.
“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,” the household wrote.
Even after her 2023 glioblastoma analysis, Richards had remained a fixture in Democratic politics. In August, she helped forged Texas’ ceremonial votes on the Democratic Nationwide Conference to appoint Vice President Kamala Harris, and delivered one of many occasion’s speeches centered on reproductive rights.
“When women are free to make their own decisions about their lives and to follow our dreams, we are unstoppable,” she mentioned within the August 21 speech. “But when Roe v. Wade was overturned, a generation of young people lost that freedom.”
In late October, Richards informed The nineteenth she had voted early in New York Metropolis for Harris, including that she informed an election employee she had “waited for this chance all my life.”
“It felt so powerful to vote for Kamala and to know that young women and men are getting to cast their first votes ever for Kamala,” she mentioned.
Richards had most not too long ago labored to assist launch Abortion in America, a web site dedicated to sharing tales of people that had sought the process after the autumn of Roe v. Wade, in addition to a chatbot referred to as Charley, which supplied details about the place and the way folks might terminate their pregnancies. She was additionally a co-chair at American Bridge, a liberal tremendous PAC and opposition analysis group.
Richards entered politics as a youngster, working when she was 16 years outdated on a marketing campaign to elect Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who argued towards Texas’ abortion ban in Roe v. Wade, to the state’s legislature. As an undergraduate at Brown College, she joined pupil activist efforts to push the college to divest its endowment from corporations working in apartheid South Africa.
In her 20s, she labored in labor organizing, heading campaigns for nursing dwelling staff and garment staff, earlier than transferring again to Texas in 1990 to work on her mom’s gubernatorial bid. Following her mom’s time period, Richards ultimately moved to Washington, D.C.
It was Richards’ work at Deliberate Parenthood, which she helmed from 2006 to 2018, the longest time any particular person has run the group, that catapulted her into the nationwide highlight.
Richards’ tenure got here as anti-abortion efforts hit a fever pitch, overlapping with makes an attempt by Republican-led state legislatures to go legal guidelines that might limit entry to abortion and reduce funding to reproductive well being suppliers, together with in her dwelling state of Texas. Years later, she would describe the interval as “a turning point in the fight for access to abortion.”
In 2013, when Texas lawmakers labored to go an omnibus invoice stuffed with abortion restrictions, Richards joined protesters within the state Capitol constructing, encouraging abortion rights supporters to yell loudly sufficient to halt state legislative proceedings. Their efforts labored, albeit briefly: the noise prevented legislators from passing the invoice earlier than their midnight deadline, a second broadcast on a viral livestream from The Texas Tribune. (The invoice was ultimately handed in a subsequent legislative session, earlier than being struck down by the U.S. Supreme Courtroom in 2016.)
“Her support really helped put it all together,” Dave Cortez, a member of Occupy Austin, informed The Texas Tribune on the time.
Underneath Richards, Deliberate Parenthood — now inextricable from the Democratic Get together, which largely helps abortion rights — grew to become extra politically lively. In 2008, it endorsed Barack Obama for president, the second time it had waded into presidential politics. In 2016, it issued its first ever major endorsement, throwing its help behind Hillary Clinton, a longtime supporter of reproductive rights. Richards argued that the strikes weren’t partisan, however as a substitute about supporting politicians who cared about reproductive rights.
Richards stayed concerned in progressive politics after leaving Deliberate Parenthood, co-founding the feminist group Supermajority in 2019. The group focuses on coaching folks to advocate for girls’s equality. Richards left Supermajority on the finish of 2020.
As abortion rights got here beneath fireplace — and particularly with the 2022 fall of Roe v. Wade — Richards emerged as a vocal supporter of abortion rights. Within the months earlier than Roe was overturned, she argued in an op-ed in The New York Occasions that Republicans had traded “the rights of women for political expediency.”
“If I have one regret from my time leading Planned Parenthood, it is that we believed that providing vital health care, with public opinion on our side, would be enough to overcome the political onslaught,” she wrote within the 2022 piece.
Extra not too long ago, she informed The nineteenth she believed it will be years earlier than the nation would possibly restore abortion rights.
“In all honesty, I fear it will take us a long time to restore the rights we once had,” she mentioned. “For people who face challenges based on race, geography, income, and more, these inequities are deep-seated, intersectional and much more difficult to eradicate. We need to be ready for a multi-year fight.”
Grace Panetta contributed to this report.
