Cecile Richards, former Planned Parenthood president, dies at 67

Cecile Richards, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and one of the country’s most prominent abortion rights advocates, died Monday. He is 67 years old.

Ms. Richards was diagnosed in 2023 with glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor. He died at home, his family said in a statement. A former political activist, Ms. Richards is the daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards.

Ms. Richards served as Planned Parenthood’s president from 2006 to 2018, overseeing the nation’s largest provider of health care and reproductive education during a time when it was most under attack. care he offered — under the administration of President George W. Bush and again under the administration of the President. Donald J. Trump. He has helped fend off attempts by Republican-controlled lawmakers to pass laws to limit access or cut funding.

“If I have one regret from my time at the helm of Planned Parenthood, it’s that we believed that providing essential health care, along with the public’s opinion of us, was enough to overcome political attacks,” Ms. Richards said. wrote in a 2022 article in The New York Times. political.”

Her latest project is called Abortion in America, and is dedicated to using TikTok and Instagram to push the abortion story beyond mainstream media.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have been able to do work that was meaningful to me and meaningful to the people I cared about,” he said in an interview with The Times last year. “Lucky is a loaded word, but I feel very lucky.”

He wore several friendship bracelets, one of which read: “Keep moving forward.”

A full body will come out later.

Jessica Testa contributed to the report.