Cecile Richards


Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards will step down from her position in part to spend time working on the 2018 mid-term elections and advising women who are running for office, according to the New York Times.
Richards is the daughter of Gov. Ann Richards and ran her mother’s successful 1990 campaign. Calls for Richards to run for Texas governor herself were all over social media when the announcement was first made, but she has missed the deadline to register for this year’s election. All candidates planning to run in 2018 had to register for party primaries by the middle of December 2017. Early voting in the Texas primaries begins in a few weeks. In addition, she missed residency requirements.
Richards told the Times she will discuss the time schedule for her leaving the organization with her board.
Some stats from the Times story:

• In 2016, Planned Parenthood served 2.4 million women mostly for physicals, mammography and treatment of STDs

• Since Richards became president in 2006, the number of supporters and volunteers has grown from 2.5 million to 11 million

• Since the 2016 election, Planned Parenthood has added new 700,000 donors

• Since the Affordable Care Act added free birth control as a mandate for health insurance policies, teen pregnancy and unintended pregnancy have fallen to a 30-year low.

— David Taffet