Ten days before the 2016 election, I was standing in a cinderblock room in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with Cecile Richards and other leaders of prominent women’s groups, all of us out to make the case for Hillary Clinton’s historic run for President.

The news of her death was discouraging to the point of despair. And yet, upon further reflection, I realized quickly that Cecile’s life should guide us.

Cecile Richards, a women’s rights crusader who served as president of Planned Parenthood as the nation approached a critical inflection point over reproductive freedom, has died, her family said Monday in a statement.

Two months before her death, Richards was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Joe Biden.

She oversaw the United States’ largest provider of reproductive health care and sex education from 2006 to 2018.

Richards was a major force in Texas and national politics. Like her mother, former governor Ann Richards, Cecile spent most of her life rallying for progressive causes. Richards was a labor organizer, a staffer to Representative Nancy Pelosi, and then president of Planned Parenthood from 2006 to 2018.

What her famous mother did as Texas governor, Cecile carried on by standing up a range of progressive and pro-choice organizations.

As we mourn the loss of activist, organizer, and former president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, I offer words of wisdom she shared with me in our interviews over the years.

Cecile Richards, a national leader for women’s rights who led Planned Parenthood for 12 tumultuous years, has died

Cecile Richards, former Planned Parenthood president and progressive activist, died Jan. 20 after a battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. She was 67.

We remember Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights leader, with Shefali Luthra, reproductive health reporter with The 19th.