A sign is pictured at the entrance to a Planned Parenthood building in New York August 31, 2015. Picture taken August 31, 2015. To match Insight USA-PLANNEDPARENTHOOD/ REUTERS/Lucas Jackson - GF10000188426
Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, is rumored to be stepping down after more than a decade with the organization.
Richards, 60, has informed some members of the board of directors about her departure and will discuss the future of the organization in an upcoming board meeting, two sources familiar with the matter told BuzzFeed.
News that Richards may be departing was met with reactions consistent along ideological lines.
Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the liberal magazine, "The Nation," tweeted that Richards "has been an extraordinary leader in vertiginous times."
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted, “See, when it comes to Cecile Richards stepping down, I’m completely pro-choice.”
Students for Life, a non-profit prolife group, tweeted, “The face you make when Cecile Richards steps down as president of Planned Parenthood!”
Planned Parenthood, which receives $500 million annually in government subsidies, has endured repeated efforts by Republicans in Congress to cut its funding.
During her tenure, Richards -- daughter of the late Ann Richards, a former Democratic governor of Texas -- was instrumental in expanding the organization’s fundraising and profile. Democrats, in particular, have made abortion rights an integral part of their party's platform.
Her possible departure would coincide with the Trump administration’s efforts to scale back state funding mechanisms for the group as well as roll back Obama-era regulations that compelled some employers to include contraception in insurance coverage.
Planned Parenthood was the subject of five congressional investigations in 2015 when a secretly recorded video allegedly showed the company profiting from the sale of fetal tissue to scientific research labs.
