Activist, Organizer, and Political Leader (1957–2025)

Cecile Richards was one of the most consequential political organizers and movement leaders of her generation, weaving together labor organizing, grassroots coalition-building, legislative strategy, and public advocacy. The daughter of Texas Governor Ann Richards and civil rights attorney David Richards, she carried forward a family legacy of public service while forging a path entirely her own.

A 1980 Brown University graduate, Richards began her career organizing low-wage workers across California, Louisiana, and Texas. She helped manage her mother’s successful 1990 gubernatorial campaign, founded the Texas Freedom Network in 1995, and served as Deputy Chief of Staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. In 2004, she founded and served as the first president of America Votes, a coalition of more than 40 national progressive organizations and a foundational infrastructure for the modern Democratic coalition.

In 2006, Richards became President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, a role she held for 12 transformative years. Under her leadership, the organization expanded access to reproductive health care including abortion, expanded preventive care and no-copay birth control under the Affordable Care Act, and grew its supporter base from 3 million to nearly 12 million. She was twice named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and published the New York Times bestselling memoir Make Trouble in 2018.

After Planned Parenthood, Richards co-founded Supermajority in 2019 with Alicia Garza and Ai-jen Poo and co-chaired American Bridge. Even after a 2023 glioblastoma diagnosis, she continued her work, co-founding Charley, a chatbot providing abortion information by zip code, and Abortion in America, an organization centering the stories of people impacted by abortion bans.

In August 2024, she addressed the Democratic National Convention in one of her final public appearances. In November 2024, President Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died on January 20, 2025, at the age of 67, and is survived by her husband, Kirk Adams, their three children, Lily, Hannah, and Daniel, and two grandchildren.