After 12 years, Cecile Richards is no longer the CEO of Planned Parenthood. Monday was her last day of work and fittingly, to mark her departure, conservatives rejoiced and liberals congratulated her legacy. In fact, Richards’ accomplishments as CEO were lauded so much, the reaction to her resignation effectively demonstrates how skewed the topic of abortion has really become and how much damage she did for the cause of the unborn.
Here are just a couple tweets.
#ThankYouCecile for being a badass woman in charge, for refusing to compromise on our rights, and for standing up with poise, humor, and grace against every single challenge. @PPFA has literally saved lives because of your spine of steel. I’m proud to be a donor & a patient.
— Amanda Litman (@amandalitman) April 30, 2018
@CecileRichards has been an incredible champion in the fight for women’s health and an exemplary leader of Planned Parenthood. I appreciate her commitment to quality, affordable health care in the face of relentless attacks. #ThankYouCecile I can’t wait to see what you do next!
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) April 30, 2018
Of course, not only is the nature of abortion destructive – in 12 years, Planned Parenthood organizations aborted nearly 4 million babies – and the millions upon millions of taxpayer-funded subsidies spent on the organization a waste, but Richards’ influence went even beyond babies lost and dollars spent.
Complicit in her direct influence are members of the media who helped to endorse, normalize, and publicize her efforts to make abortion not just “safe, legal, and rare” but a celebration of choice of the most ghoulish kind. From morning news programs and People magazine, to the evening news and political marches, the CEO of Planned Parenthood wasn’t just your average businesswoman but a celebrity championing freedom from the so-called shackles of parenthood. It’s this effort that’s just as damaging as the millions of babies aborted during her tenure.
On the one hand, some conservatives argue Richards’ legacy had an unintended consequence: It produced zeal among pro-life advocates, strengthening their movement, but splintering the topic further. While the conservative Right has made significant strides both culturally and politically (in terms of abortion regulations) when it has really mattered, politicians at the federal level were unable to hit Richards where it would have hurt most: defunding Planned Parenthood. If anything, the most positive outcome of her legacy, in terms of pro-life advocacy, was the commitment to finally care as much about “mom” as “baby,” something the Left has been doing better for decades.
On the Left of course, abortion wasn’t just something done in a back alley but an act that should garner celebration in the streets (or on social media). From #ShoutYourAbortion to the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., Richards made sure abortion was not merely a right afforded to all women but an event championed, admired, and lauded among progressive feminists.
Turning the rhetoric of abortion around had to be difficult, and if conservatives give Richards anything, her ability to severely gaslight a generation of women into believing that abortion isn’t harmful but a right, it isn’t hurtful but a celebration, is surely a morbid feat to behold.
Hopefully, in the years to come, pro-life advocates can redirect this fraudulent language in order to help steer women to a healthier decision about their lives and that of the babies they carry.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
