On Monday, hours before President-elect Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second time, Cecile Richards’ family confirmed the formidable feminist activist and former president of Planned Parenthood passed away at 67.
“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 family wrote in a statement on Twitter.
In a poignant personal essay published by The Cut on January 2024, Richards wrote that she had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in 2023.
“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,” the family wrote.
Richards spent her life on the frontlines of the fight for reproductive rights. From 2006 to 2018, she served as president of Planned Parenthood, and her stewardship of the organization is widely credited as steadfast—especially in spite of relentless attacks on bodily autonomy. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned and bans on abortion and bodily autonomy are likely to be implemented under a second Trump term, the impact of Richards’ passion for providing high-quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health care for all is felt more deeply than ever.
Among the many mourning Richards are peers like the Center for Reproductive Rights, who, in a statement posted to Twitter, wrote: “Her work positively impacted countless people over decades. Our hearts go out to her loved ones and all who are feeling her loss today.”
In one of Richards’ final public appearances, she delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention—sharing a story of a child in Mississippi who was forced to carry her rape-induced pregnancy to termafter the state’s abortion ban denied her care and concluded, in part: “One day our children and grandchildren may ask us, ‘When it was all on the line, what did you do?’ And the only acceptable answer is everything we could.”
A more encompassing memoriam of Cecile Richards is to come.
