Planned Parenthood Former President Cecile Richards Passes Away Hours Before Trump Sworn In

Last Updated on January 22, 2025

Former Planned Parenthood president Cecil Richards, who served as the leader of the abortion clinic for nearly a decade, died on Monday at the age of 67.

Richards is widely credited for mainstreaming the controversial procedure, which features the violent destruction of a pre-born baby’s body, and the cessation of the beating of its heart.

ABORTIONS ARE ON THE RISE, DESPITE ROE v. WADE REPEAL

Despite the repeal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in June of 2022, Richards’s death, and her departure from Planned Parenthood, there were more than 1 million abortions in the US during 2023 — the highest rate in more than a decade and a 10% jump from 2020.

The high rate of abortions is according to a report completed by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization.

Abortion procedures are on the rise post-Roe, according to a separate report from Guttmacher.

Nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the US in 2023 – an estimated 642,700 – were medication abortions, the report says.

Although abortions all but stopped in the 14 states with total bans, nearly every other state had an increase in the number of abortions provided from 2020 to 2023. As the geography of abortion care shifted amid a fractured policy landscape, the 10% increase in abortions nationwide meant that states without total bans saw a 25% increase in those years.

Medication abortion, also called medical abortion by advocates of the murderous procedure, is a method by which someone ends their pregnancy by taking two pills – mifepristone and misoprostol – rather than killing the baby with scissors and a scalpel.

Killing babies using drugs has become steadily more common over the twenty years since the deadly drugs became available, rising from less than 10% of all abortions in the US in 2001 to 53% in 2020 and 63% in 2023.

Lately, however, mifepristone, the drug that was approved for abortion use by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2000, is being confronted with an unprecedented legal challenge.

On March 26, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that puts access to the medication at stake – even in states where abortion remains legal.

The challenge also raises questions about the authority courts have to overrule determinations by FDA experts about a drug’s safety.

Richards’ family issued a statement announcing her passing.

“This morning our beloved Cecile passes 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 her lives,” the statement read.

“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 statement continued.

Richards’ family did not disclose her cause of death in the statement.

The former Planned Parenthood president, who served as head of the abortion giant from 2006 to 2018, died hours before President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Last June, Richards disclosed to CNN that she was suffering from glioblastoma, an incurable type of brain cancer.

“There’s been highs and lows, but I feel really fortunate to have health care that is first class living in New York City,” Richards told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “It’s made me appreciate how much all people need health care.”

Planned Parenthood was at the center of scandals under Richards’ leadership, facing major backlash after the clinic was revealed to be selling fetal body parts for profit. The group’s advocacy for partial-birth abortion and its profiting of fetal body parts ignited congressional investigations.

Following her departure from Planned Parenthood, Richards co-founded a progressive organization called Supermajority to fight for “gender equity.”

In November, Joe Biden awarded the abortion scion the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“Richards has “led some of our Nation’s most important civil rights causes — to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women’s reproductive rights and equality, and mobilize Americans to exercise their power to vote,” Biden said during a private White House ceremony.

“A leader of utmost character, she has carved an inspiring legacy that endures in her incredible family, the countless lives she has made better, and a nation seeking the light of equality, justice, and freedom,” Biden said of Richards.

Publisher Noel Fritsch contributed to this report.