Organizer Cecile Richards believes abortion 'was just the first attack'

This story is part of a series on the fallout of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the federal constitutional right to abortion.

Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, has been in the fight for reproductive justice since she was a teenager.

In 1972, when Richards was just 15, she worked on a campaign with her mother, the late former Texas Gov. Ann Richards. The two were aiming to get Sarah Weddington, a lawyer at the time, elected into the Texas legislature. This was just a year after Weddington, famously and successfully arguedRoe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Richards told the American Independent Foundation that when she learned that Roe had been overturned in June 2022: “I guess my thought was, This is a day I knew was always possible but really hoped would not happen. … And of course, my other thought was, There are a lot of people, a lot of women, who are going to suffer as a result. And, of course, that’s what we’re seeing come true.”

Richards served as president of Planned Parenthood for 12 years, from 2006 to 2018. Before that, Richards worked on her mother’s gubernatorial campaign in 1990.

In 1995, in an effort to advance progressive causes, she founded the Texas Freedom Network, “a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of more than 150,000 religious and community leaders who support religious freedom, individual liberties and public education,” according to its website. In 2002, she worked as the deputy chief of staff for House Democratic Whip Nancy Pelosi and two years later, in 2004, Richards founded and served as president of America Votes, a coalition of 42 national grassroots organizations, working with state and national partners to increase voter participation.

Richards’ memoir, “Make Trouble: Stand Up, Speak Out, and Find the Courage to Lead,” was published in 2018. She was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2011 and 2012, and she currently serves as the co-chair of American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC. (Disclosure: The American Independent Foundation is a partner organization of American Bridge.)

Richards said that despite the many states that have enacted restrictive abortion bans since Roe was overturned — 14 and counting — she remains confident that people have been galvanized to advocate for abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision. 

“I feared that this would be seen as some sort of obscure decision by a Supreme Court that was untouchable and far away,” Richards said. “But in fact, after Kansas, and going through the midterm elections, and certainly continuing on into Wisconsin, the voters have been very clear. They do not want to live in a country where the government is making decisions about pregnancy.”

Voters in Kansas in August 2022 rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have affirmed there was no right to abortion in the state. In Wisconsin, pro-abortion rights state Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz beat an anti-abortion opponent in an election in April 2023.

Richards said it’s the impassioned stories people are sharing since the fall of Roe that will keep people engaged in the pro-abortion movement.

“People being denied miscarriage care at hospitals; women having to flee their states to access safe and legal abortion; doctors being criminalized for caring for their patients,” Richards said. “There are just any number of ways in which it’s clear this is unacceptable. … It is going to be the stories of everyday Americans seeping into the consciousness of voters everywhere, and again, I believe we’ve already seen that.” 

Prior to serving as governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995, Richards’ mother was elected the first female commissioner of Travis County in 1976. She was vocal during the National Women’s Conference, a four-day event held in 1977 in Houston to discuss women’s rights and issues, advocating in favor of a resolution to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. 

The younger Richards said: “I think Mom understood that the institution that has the most impact on your life is government. If the people that are in government aren’t representing you, you have to change them.” 

Richards said that if her mother were alive today, “She would be doing what all the rest of us are doing, which is realizing that this was a political act and it’s going to have to have a political resolution.” 

Richards said she believes the Democratic Party has been clear that the issue of abortion “is a question about personal freedoms for everyone, everyone. Of course, it’s about abortion, but that was just the first attack.”

She added: 

I was just reading in my home state of Texas, the only reason they’re not as focused on abortion now since they banned practically everything is because they’re going after transgender people and children and their families. The entire thematic of the Republican Party now is they want to get into our personal lives. They want to play God about our decisions and our families. They don’t care about the economy. They don’t care about health care. They don’t care about any of the issues that are actually on the minds of American voters. All they want to do is wage a culture war on America. I believe that’s where the lines are drawn.

In 2019, Richards shared her own abortion story on Twitter, saying, “I had an abortion. It was the right decision for me, and it wasn’t a hard one. My husband and I were working more than full time and had three kids already. I was fortunate that, at the time, accessing abortion in TX was not the nightmare it is now.” 

She said she thinks it’s stories of everyday people that are missing in the conversation: “We hear about some of the really severe, traumatic stories, but we don’t hear enough about just the everyday experience of women and families who no longer have the right to make their own decisions about the most fundamental issue in our lifetime, which is when and whether to have a family.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.