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Cecile Richards

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Advocate

The Resume

    (July 15, 1957- )
    Born in Waco, Texas
    Democrat
    Daughter of former Texas governor Ann Richards
    Former deputy chief of staff to the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
    Founded the Texas Freedom Network, in 1996
    Founded and served as president of America Votes, in 2004
    President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (2006 - )
    Elected to the Ford Foundation board of trustees, in 2010
    Frequent blog contributor to The Huffington Post
    Found herself at the center of national controversy, in 2015, after the Pro-Life organization, Center for Medical Progress, released undercover videos showing several Planned Parenthood representatives describing the alleged harvest of fetal organs, and the company's sale of said organs for profit
    Testified before the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood, which was formed to further investigate Planned Parenthood (Sept. 29, 2015)

Why she might be annoying:

    Larry Wilmore joked about her being a Claire Underwood lookalike.
    Her ascendance to a leadership role in Planned Parenthood may have been predicated on partisan nepotism.
    She was accused of relying zealously on pro-PP talking points in her cable news appearances.
    She told delegates attending her 2012 DNC speech, 'this year, women learned that if we aren’t at the table, we’re on the menu.'
    She attacked members of the Christian Right who opposed her mother's 1994 reelection campaign as 'angry, irrational' people who 'were really on a mission to eradicate the state of [what they saw as] godless, pro-homosexual, anti-family elected officials.'
    She is head of one of the largest women's health organizations in the country despite not being of the medical profession, functioning more as an organizational fundraiser than anything.
    She repeatedly went on record claiming that Planned Parenthood facilities performed mammograms, but claimed she didn't when put under oath, admitting that it wasn't true.
    She was caught on-camera praising abortionist Deborah Nucatola to the undercover actors, who proceeded to insert the compliment into their maiden video as a means of proving the executive heads' complicity.
    She called the Center for Medical Progress' gradual release of their undercover videos 'water torture,' calling for the 'bogus videos' to be released all at once.
    She claimed that Center for Medical Progress head, David Daleiden, was 'part of the most militant wing of the anti-abortion movement that has been behind the bombing of clinics, the murder of doctors in their homes, and in their churches,' during a George Stephanopoulos interview.
    She served as a top adviser to the White House on how to implement the Obamacare mandate requiring all employers to provide their workers with health insurance policies covering contraceptive costs, regardless of employers' religious/moral objections.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She began participating in antiwar protest activities at the age of twelve.
    She worked on the 1972 Texas state legislature campaign of Roe v. Wade attorney Sarah Weddington, when she was only fifteen.
    She inherited her mother's svelte figure and delicate bone structure.
    She was awarded the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship in 2010.
    She handled the onslaught of attacks on PPFA quite well, promoting the trending Twitter hashtag, #StandWithPP as a response to the Defund Planned Parenthood movement.
    She wiped the floor with the House Republicans when they tried to gang up on her (many of whom came across as condescending and rude, their attempts to entrap her usually backfiring comically).
    Many deemed it inappropriate for her to be grilled about her salary during the hearing.
    Although she probably didn't change the minds of any hardline pro-life advocates, the rhetoric would never be as blistering after her performance at the hearing (Rep. Jason Chaffetz, one of her more abrasive interrogators, conceded that they had learned nothing new).
    She might have been a better choice than Wendy Davis to pursue the Texas governorship in 2014 (not only by birthright but just by having flat-out sharper debating skills).
    She publicly mourned in the aftermath of the Colorado Springs shootings at a local Planned Parenthood branch, traveling to Colorado to personally meet with the victims' family members and with workers credited with saving lives (Dec. 04, 2015).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 12 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 105 Votes: 59.05% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 36 Votes: 80.56% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 90 Votes: 51.11% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 53 Votes: 52.83% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 255 Votes: 63.14% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 845 Votes: 81.30% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 83 Votes: 80.72% Annoying