planned Parenthood’s President On Reproductive Rights: “These concerns is not Partisan concerns”

quick company sat down with deliberate Parenthood president Cecile Richards to discuss crises, politics, and just right female mentors.

fast firm: planned Parenthood has endured its share of crises within the nine years since you was president—the whole thing from defeats in the courts and in Congress to the homicide of George Tiller in 2009. How do you deal with that as a company?

Cecile Richards: We have been born in controversy. [Planned Parenthood] started sooner than delivery keep an eye on used to be even legal, so I don’t suppose controversy is something that rocks the organization. That stated, i believe the problem is, when there are all the time attainable crises, how do you figure out for those who’re spending sufficient time on offense as you’re on defense?

4 years ago, when the new Congress came in, they took a whack at planned Parenthood. [They] wished to basically do away with the power of thousands and thousands of ladies to come back to deliberate Parenthood well being centers for preventative care. It wasn’t that it rocked the group, however for our sufferers . . . many of those women, we’re the one health care supplier they’ve. however we’re just right at taking lemons and making lemonade—daybreak Laguens, who runs our Washington operation, says we’re like a permanent lemonade stand. sufferers, former sufferers, current sufferers came out of the woodwork [to offer their support]. It was like this enormous alumni affiliation of planned Parenthood. Oh, my God, it was once great.

So you use a situation to arrange donors, supporters, rally the troops?

right. when you have a look at the previous four years—which have been difficult in the political setting—we’ve brought 3.5 million new supporters.

In his profile of you for the New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin brought up exactly that paradox: Donations are up, volunteer toughen is up, and your title is in the market in a bigger method than it has ever been earlier than. yet what’s came about in the courts and in sure states seems to be in direct opposition to deliberate Parenthood’s goals. What’s going on there?

there are a variety of issues the place we’re taking successful, however i believe that’s if in case you have a easy chance to say, “ok, what in reality matters?”

Courts take a very long time to make shifts, but even this remaining election to me was a marked difference from 4 years in the past. both Democrats and Republicans [were] positioning themselves with girls voters as being for girls’s well being. You had Republicans working for Senate working ads about how so much they have been for start keep an eye on. folks of both events are recognizing that we’re talking in regards to the future.

for those who zoom out, where is feminism right now? And the place do you match into that?

appear, when Beyoncé says she’s a feminist, this is now not a fringe movement. To me, the vital factor isn’t a lot about the phrase feminism as much as, on this united states, we imagine that women must be equal partners in society. All varieties of issues are now getting plenty of consideration. there are a variety of causes for that, but I do assume that social media allows people who didn’t get to inform their stories earlier than [now] to inform their tales in lots of methods. That’s thrilling.

On the social media front, I appeared via some of the things individuals tweet at you…

Oh, wow.

right. You clearly have to enhance tricky pores and skin. however how has social media been an asset for you?

It’s been improbable. When [the House of Representatives] truly went after planned Parenthood, it used to be social media that drove the story to the entrance web page of the occasions. I keep in mind that one night, Glenn Beck stated that most effective hookers went to deliberate Parenthood, and right away, our facebook page exploded with non-hookers who had been sufferers. I had this girl from North Carolina who wrote, “i suppose he doesn’t comprehend that us militia better halves go to planned Parenthood when the doctor on base can’t see us.” Social media has allowed us to demonstrate that deliberate Parenthood is ­really in the cloth of communities all across this usa.

Has the tone of the dialog changed?

yes. So many issues have grow to be hyperpartisan, [but] this isn’t about a political battle. in reality, these issues shouldn’t be partisan considerations. The thousands and thousands of sufferers we see every year, they’re now not coming as a result of they wish to make a political observation. They’re coming as a result of they want fine quality and reasonably priced reproductive well being care. The women and men who reinforce planned Parenthood come from each stroll of lifestyles, and i believe that’s how you take this out of this again-and-forth political divide.

There’s also a fascinating young-male piece. women of my generation, we had these moms who had a briefcase in a single hand and a baby within the other, who believed, “My little lady can do anything.” but quite a few males did not have a task variation for “that you may prepare dinner, be a stay-at-dwelling dad.” What’s taking place with planned Parenthood and younger males?

It’s one among our fastest-growing demographics. they arrive principally for STD remedy and checking out. a lot of locations, if you want nonstigmatized and nonjudgmental care, you come to planned Parenthood.

and then on the activist aspect, it has radically shifted. 4 years in the past, half of the activists we introduced had been males. I have a look at my own son. He was just doing his personal factor, and subsequent factor I knew, he texted me that he used to be in a van going to Ohio to rally make stronger for planned Parenthood. That’s when I knew: Wow, this is a motion. It’s now not almost about planned Parenthood. It’s about sexual well being and rights. They’re now not a women’s issue solely.

a lot of planned Parenthood’s history has been driven by way of advances in know-how: the delivery of the tablet, the improvement of IUDs. what is the next push going to be?

At deliberate Parenthood, we see someplace between 2.5 million to three million sufferers in our clinics each 12 months, [but] we now see 6 million monthly on-line—minimum. We’re in a position to chat with somebody who would possibly not are living near a well being middle, or can’t decide up the telephone, or they just need anyone to speak to on their terms. the entire things we’re able to do now take down the limitations between “Wow, i know i would like beginning regulate” and getting it. the next generation, they don’t want to look ahead to anything else. They don’t wish to watch for something to obtain, they don’t wish to wait for somebody to give them a experience to the mall, they want one thing at this time, and that to me is a large probability for planned Parenthood. I take into account that eight years ago, with the ability to kind your zip code [into a search engine] and get a planned Parenthood, that used to be a radical thought on the time. Now we’re the Fandango of reproductive health care.

Your mother used to be Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, and you worked with Nancy Pelosi for a time. How do you wrap in your legacy and prior experiences with this job?

i believe like I’ve simply been extremely lucky to have awesome mentors. but also, as a result of i have viewed ladies in politics lots, it’s made me in reality take pleasure in deliberate Parenthood, as a result of it hovers above various the political fray. these days, dozens of girls are walking into planned Parenthood health facilities all over the place this country regardless of what is taking place in Congress, and so they’re depending on us.

Is that a liberating concept?

Are you kidding me? It’s huge. We’re now not preventing political battles just to get a tally of win-losses. It’s as a result of it in truth does topic in girls’s lives. That’s a rare thing.

i try to remind people that Margaret Sanger was once thrown into prison ninety nine years in the past for handing out a pamphlet that now 6 million folks on our web page have get entry to to. no longer that way back, young girls had been demise in emergency rooms from abortions, and now abortion is without doubt one of the safest medical treatments for girls. Even after I came here, [we were] fighting to get delivery keep an eye on covered in insurance coverage applications at all. Now it’s no longer simply in insurance policy, it’s lined at no cost. of course, we now have plenty of things we now have to combat, but we’re getting into the suitable route.