Cecile Richards, former leader of Planned Parenthood and 2015 Glamour Woman of the Year, has died at 67 years old.
Richard’s family confirmed the news with a statement on January 20, revealing the feminist activist passed away at home, “surrounded by family and her ever-loyal dog, Ollie.” Richards revealed that she’d been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer, in early 2024.
“Our hearts are broken today but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives,” her family wrote in a statement. “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.”
Cecile Richards dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights, advocating for reproductive freedom well past her 12-year tenure as the president of Planned Parenthood, which she ran from 2006 to 2018. Prior to her work with Planned Parenthood, she founded the Texas Freedom Network, a non-profit social justice organization, in 1995, and continued to mobilize against abortion bans throughout her battle with cancer.
Her family’s statement continued, “If you’d like to celebrate Cecile today, we invite you to put on some New Orleans jazz, gather with friends and family over a good meal, and remember something she said a lot over the last year: ‘It’s not hard to imagine future generations one day asking: ‘When there was so much at stake for our country, what did you do?’ The only acceptable answer is: ‘Everything we could.’”
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