Cecile Richards.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: THE PROGRESSIVE INTERVIEW - Interview

As the war on women exploded in the national news, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, was visiting the group's Washington, D.C., office. Her voice was so hoarse she had to speak in a whisper, sipping chamomile tea at her desk as I bent forward to listen. Over the last several months, Richards has kept up a grueling schedule, speaking out and defending Planned Parenthood against unprecedented attacks by the right, Mitt Romney, Republicans in Congress, and legislators in statehouses across the nation who have tried to make her organization Public Enemy Number One.

The House of Representatives voted to defund Planned Parenthood in this Congress (the bill died in the Senate), and nine states have attempted to bar funding for the group (most of those measures have been blocked, so far, by federal courts).

The effort to demonize Planned Parenthood has backfired dramatically, thanks, in part, to Richards's savvy leadership. When the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held hearings on birth control coverage, Planned Parenthood's Facebook post went viral: a photo of the all-male panel of conservative religious leaders testifying, and the caption "What's wrong with this picture?"

When Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced its decision to pull funding for breast-cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood, citing controversy over birth control and abortion, Planned Parenthood gained millions of dollars from new donors and tens of thousands of new members--many of them young women who rushed to Planned Parenthood's defense. That outpouring, and, ultimately, a reversal by Komen, left Planned Parenthood able to increase breast cancer screenings.

"The good news out of the Komen situation is that I do think we'll be able to do more breast exams this year than we ever have in history," Richards says.

And that's not all. A whole generation of feminist activists has been energized by the attacks on Planned Parenthood and women's health.

Cecile Richards grew up in a tight-knit progressive community in Texas. The daughter of Texas governor Ann Richards, she followed in the footsteps of her labor and civil-rights attorney father, David Richards, when she went to work organizing garment workers right after college.

She met her husband, AFL-CIO organizing director Kirk Adams, while campaigning for hotel workers in New Orleans. They raised three children, while working for various progressive and Democratic causes. Richards was deputy chief of staff to Nancy Pelosi when Pelosi was House majority leader, before helping to found and lead America Votes, a coalition of organizations dedicated to building a permanent, progressive campaign infrastructure. Richards came to Planned Parenthood in 2006 and immediately set to work attracting young people: through social media campaigns, by developing a peer-to-peer youth leadership program, and by linking up with youth-friendly outreach programs like the "I have sex" YouTube series produced by young Planned Parenthood supporters.

Richards points out a picture of a group of teens on the wall of her D.C. office. "Those are some of my friends," she says. "They're all amazing. And I think they really do represent the future. They're totally mystified why politicians would be fighting about birth control now. The same way they don't understand why they would be fighting about gay marriage."

A ping-pong table and a replica of the pink bus sit in the lobby of Planned Parenthood's D.C. office, which is buzzing with activity when I visit. Richards, looking glamorous as ever with her short, blonde...