Cecile Richards Is Awesome

I've always had a cool-person crush on Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Aside from seeing her name the bottom of emails I get from PP, she's always right there, on the front lines, doing the crucial work that Planned Parenthood does every day. If you want to know why I call Cecile Richards one of my heroes, read this interview.

It's important to remind people how important Planned Parenthood actually is - beyond the politics. When I was tabling at the State Fair, if people looked skeptical, we reminded them that it's about Women's Rights! And Women's Health! Cecile Richards does that for a living (and much much more!) and she is wonderful.

Here are some of my favorite parts:

Planned Parenthood is this incredible organization that is a legacy organization – it's 92 years old – and yet, as relevant today as it was when Margaret Sanger started it.

The incredible thing about Planned Parenthood is we're in every state. We're not just in blue states or just red states or just in in-between states. We're everywhere.

We are the largest reproductive healthcare provider in the country…Ninety-seven percent of our work is preventive care—contraception, STI testing and treatment…Last year we did 1.3 million cervical cancer screenings.

During the last few years, we've seen this country [USA] with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the Western industrialized world, and we have now one in four teenage girls in America has a sexually transmitted infection. So this is like, it's not just a theoretical problem, it's a healthcare problem.

And if you love her like I do, follow her on Twitter!