Two months before her death, Richards was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Joe Biden.

Richards was a major force in Texas and national politics. Like her mother, former governor Ann Richards, Cecile spent most of her life rallying for progressive causes. Richards was a labor organizer, a staffer to Representative Nancy Pelosi, and then president of Planned Parenthood from 2006 to 2018.

The activist modernized Planned Parenthood and transformed the organization into a formidable political player.

Cecile Richards devoted her life to political activism in the fight for equal rights, most notably the rights of women to reproductive health.

What her famous mother did as Texas governor, Cecile carried on by standing up a range of progressive and pro-choice organizations.

Ten days before the 2016 election, I was standing in a cinderblock room in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with Cecile Richards and other leaders of prominent women’s groups, all of us out to make the case for Hillary Clinton’s historic run for President.

Cecile Richards, a national leader for women’s rights who led Planned Parenthood for 12 tumultuous years, has died. She was 67.

She oversaw the United States’ largest provider of reproductive health care and sex education from 2006 to 2018.

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Cecile Richards, a longtime reproductive rights and feminist activist and former president of Planned Parenthood, has died, her family announced Monday. She was 67. Richards was diagnosed in 2023 with a glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor.

Cecile Richards died Monday after battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, her family said in a statement.

Richards, the eldest daughter of Gov. Ann Richards, forged her own path as a tireless advocate for women across Texas and the United States.