Cecile Richards

Cecile Richards

President

President
Planned Parenthood Federation of America and
Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Cecile Richards is president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Over the course of her career, she has become a nationally recognized progressive leader and a fierce advocate for reproductive health and rights. Since coming to Planned Parenthood in February 2006, Ms. Richards has led the organization to many significant achievements, including its success in ensuring FDA approval of over-the-counter status for emergency contraception, and the launch of a nationwide campaign to provide comprehensive, medically accurate sex education for all young people in America. 

Ms. Richards leads a federation of 91 Planned Parenthood affiliates that manage more than 850 health centers nationwide, providing high-quality family planning and reproductive health care services, education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people each year. For more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has led the movement to improve women’s health and safety, prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, and advance the right and ability of individuals and families to make informed and responsible health care decisions. That effort takes place in Washington, DC, and in all 50 states where Planned Parenthood advocates for positive, commonsense policies that address the health priorities of individuals and families, including support for medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education. Planned Parenthood also works with allies in other countries to help provide and protect sexual and reproductive health care for women and men worldwide.

Before joining Planned Parenthood, Ms. Richards served as deputy chief of staff for Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and played a key role in her election as the Democratic Leader in the House of Representatives.

Ms. Richards has a long history of organizing in support of reproductive freedom and social justice. In 2004, she founded and served as president of America Votes, a coalition of 42 national membership-based organizations, that works to maximize voter registration, education, and mobilization efforts at the grassroots level.

Ms. Richards began her career organizing low-wage workers in the hotel, health care, and janitorial industries throughout California, Louisiana, and Texas. Prior to her national advocacy work, she established the Texas Freedom Network, a grassroots organization that has grown to include more than 28,000 clergy and community leaders, to advance a mainstream agenda of religious freedom and individual liberties across the state.

The daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, Ms. Richards was raised in a family committed to social justice and public service. She worked side by side with her mother on her very first campaign — the successful election to the state legislature of Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who successfully argued the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Cecile Richards and her husband, Kirk Adams, have three children. They currently reside in New York City.