The primary time I actually sat down with Cecile Richards, it was early in her tenure at Deliberate Parenthood, at an enormous spherical breakfast desk in a midtown Manhattan restaurant. I’d been instructed she was new to New York—although not, after all, new to the highlight, as a longtime labor organizer and the daughter of iconic Texas governor Ann Richards—and didn’t know that many ladies in media. Would I prepare a couple of editors to return meet her?
I did, and by the point our plates have been cleared, had two ideas: 1. I might comply with this lady into struggle, and a couple of. Can we be pals?? Cecile was forthright, humorous, a natural-born organizer, and seemingly unafraid. She went on to spend 12 years at Deliberate Parenthood, from 2006 to 2018, earlier than leaving to launch a number of different abortion-rights and pro-democracy initiatives, and many people at that desk have been fortunate sufficient to grow to be pals together with her. Oh, and yeah—because it turned out, she form of did find yourself going to struggle.
It wasn’t that way back, however Cecile Richards led Deliberate Parenthood throughout a distinct time than the one we stay in now. You may assume it was an simpler time–and naturally it was: earlier than the Supreme Court docket struck down Roe v. Wade, earlier than ERs have been turning away so many pregnant women, earlier than states proposed charging the one in 4 of us who’ve abortions with homicide.
However it was additionally a time when abortion wasn’t talked about. Correction: The individuals who opposed abortion have been speaking about it a lot; one study discovered that 94% of all abortion mentions within the ‘10s have been on Fox, and stuffed with falsehoods. However public discourse basically studiously averted the A-word.; Right here at Glamour, the place I used to be editor on the time, we at all times covered the difficulty frankly, however there was stress on many public figures to steer clear. “My managers are begging me to get one other charity,” a widely known actress and Deliberate Parenthood supporter instructed me ruefully again then.
That meant Cecile and a handful of different high-profile abortion-rights advocates have been on the market alone, preventing our struggle at the same time as abortion restrictions and violence towards suppliers gained steam. In 2015, when she was hauled earlier than Congress to testify for 12 hours in response to a completely false declare towards Deliberate Parenthood, Instances columnist Gail Collins described Cecile’s job as “steering a ship carrying unstable explosives…whereas surrounded on each side by enemy pirates throwing burning torches.”
However she might take the pirates. Once we honored her that 12 months as a Glamour Woman of the Year, I watched and rewatched the footage of that Congressional testimony, marveling at her composure (and that excellent Texas accent). People in every single place took notice of her management; after we photographed her on the road for that story, folks of all ages and genders approached her to thank her. “That’s why I’m doing this,” she’d say. “Folks deserve well being care.” And, as Cecile’s warnings concerning the rise of the anti-woman opposition got here to move, and our rights started to be eroded—steadily, then immediately—extra and more of us discovered the braveness to face by her, or at the least to strive.
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