-I do think that all of us are obligated to try to communicate with people who otherwise might just, you know, tune us out.

And my mom really taught me that.

I mean, she used to say, you know, "If whatever you're saying can't be understood by your grandmother back in Waco, then no one's hearing it."

And so I don't think it's so much about curating an image, but it's making things simple for people.

And it's being direct about what you believe and what you're trying to do.

♪♪ ♪♪ -So, tell me a little bit more about your childhood and the kind of family and community that you were a part of.

-Well, I was born in Waco, Texas, and then my mother left as soon as she could get out of there.

We moved to Dallas.

And my dad was a civil rights attorney, labor lawyer, and my mother was what we called a housewife in those days.

I mean, she was taking care of four kids.

And we had sort of a traditional -- I guess it was a traditional '50s, '60s kind of household, except that my parents were really political.

And Dallas was a very, very conservative city.

We were kind of against everything that was going on.

And my parents were involved in campaigns in the farm workers' movement and the women's movement and the civil rights movement.

And so I think, from a really early age, I found out that being an activist was important, but it was also fun.

I mean, those were all of our friends.

And then eventually we moved to Austin, Texas, which was a much more hospitable place for my very progressive parents.

And that's when I think we all got just sort of full swing into the movements again, for women's rights, to end the war in Vietnam, and where I really learned that maybe this is something I could do for the rest of my life.

-What was your father like during your childhood?

Could you just describe his civil rights work a little bit more and how he came to influence you?

-So, my father was an only child.

Both my parents were.

And his mother was very independent.

She was part of the League of Women Voters.

I think she started the League of Women Voters in Texas.

She was from the East.

And so she just had a whole different point of view about what women could do than was sort of the traditional norm in Texas.

And my dad became a labor lawyer.

He represented unions, which -- in Dallas and, you know, worked with the farm workers.

That was my upbringing, was sort of fighting the powers that be.

And so my dad had a huge influence on me.

You know, I became a union organizer right out of college, even here at, you know, at the age of 89, he's still filing lawsuits against the lieutenant governor of Texas.

So, he is one of those sort of unrepentant activists, very progressive, really out of step with the mainstream of Texas, but proudly so.

-People obviously know your mother as a public servant and a political trailblazer.

But what was your mother like as a mother growing up?

-I mean, it's funny.

My mom was always trying to do what was expected of her, so she was the perfect housewife in Dallas, Texas, which is kind of funny now, if you look back and think, "What was she thinking?

I mean, she put on the perfect dinner parties.

She threw the perfect holiday events, birthday parties, everything.

As she said, if it was in a glossy magazine, she was trying to do it.

And, you know, she was taking care of four kids, which was not that uncommon in Texas at the time.

She had no career.

And so she threw herself into political campaigns and things that would keep her mind busy.

I think it wasn't until much, much later that she actually figured out she could do something other than take care of kids.

And, of course, once she did, we moved to Austin.

She ran a political campaign for a young woman lawyer who wanted to be in the state house.

And that was actually very uncommon in the time.

We didn't have very many women in elective office.

And, actually, all of us kids got involved in the campaign.

and we won.

She won the race, which was really not expected.

Her name was Sarah Weddington, and of course she had argued the Roe v. Wade case, so she was already a trailblazer and a firebrand.

Mom went to work for her in the Capitol.

And then at some point, Mom thought, "Well, I guess if these other women can run for office, I guess I can, too."

And so she started her political career relatively late in life.

I mean, her kids were -- We weren't all grown, but, you know, she had been doing that for many years.

But, man, once she got into it, like, she fell into it with a vengeance.

It was clearly what she was meant to do, and of course eventually, you know, ran for governor of Texas.

And in almost a complete miracle, we won that race, too.

-So, then after four years in office, your mother was defeated in her bid for re-election by George W. Bush.

That campaign was notoriously dirty.

What did your mother and you think of George W. Bush?

-There wasn't a lot of feeling about him.

I think the difficulty was really about the campaign.

Obviously, Karl Rove really cut his teeth -- I mean, he, you know, went on to become such a famous and infamous political strategist.

It was the year that the Christian right became very involved in politics, and Texas was one of those places.

It was the year that Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition became involved in electoral politics.

So, it was just -- It was a tough year.

But she was tough.

She really believed, particularly as she got older, you know, you have one life, you have one chance to make a difference in this world, and so you better take it.

And I think she just sort of brought that, whether to politics or to child rearing or to just enjoying life.

That was sort of her -- That was her approach.

-What were the expectations that she had for you that she was trying to cultivate in you?

-You know, I think she probably had the same expectations for me.

I was the eldest daughter, uim, eldest child.

And, I mean, she would say - You know, they had no idea how to raise kids.

They were very young, and so I had to be perfect.

And so there was a lot of expectations, I think, at a very early age.

But eventually, I -- She really had the same expectations for me that she had for other women.

She saw so many women -- and I know this was a reflection on her own experience -- that -- You know, women waited until they were perfect to do the next thing, right?

They waited until they were asked whether it was to run for office, whether it was to be in charge of something, even though she knew women were behind the scenes running everything.

And she was a big believer in not only pushing other women to do more, but linking arms with them and walking down the road together.

I mean, it's funny -- when she was governor of Texas, she was sort of like a unicorn.

Like, I don't know if there were any other progressive women governors anywhere in the country.

And some women I got to know later said, "You know, when your mom was governor, she invited any women she could find in the country to come to the governor's mansion and go to what she called, you know, governor girls school."

And as a result, women like Janet Napolitano, who went on to become governor of Arizona, and Kathleen Sebelius -- you know Kathleen became governor of Kansas.

They said what a big difference that made, right, is that Mom was, "If I can do it, you can do it, too.

And that was her attitude till the end of her life.

-Did you ever butt heads with your parents growing up?

-Oh, my God, of course I butted heads with my parents all the time.

I mean, over what I was gonna wear, where I was gonna go.

But I wouldn't say -- They were not helicopter parents, as we talk about now, you know, with kids.

I mean, we had a lot of freedom.

They were, um -- They had a lot of freedom.

I mean, they had a whole big life.

So they weren't like, you know, spending time with us all the time.

And I don't think -- Look, I think every kid pushes boundaries.

It's funny, though, 'cause, you know, I have spent so much time with young people in my career and so many young people that I know who have to, like, fight their parents over politics, over issues.

That was never the deal with my parents.

We saw eye-to-eye on most issues.

So I think that the kinds of times we fought were -- were over the silly things, not the really important things.

And I just think that's the role of teenagers to rebel, and I think my parents got that.

-You've always prided yourself on making trouble, as you put it.

When did you first begin questioning authority in the Texas of your youth, and where do you think that instinct came from?

-Well, I mean, the whole idea of questioning why things were the way they were was absolutely born out of the dinner table and my family.

And we were always supporting candidates who couldn't win, you know, progressive folk.

My dad, you know, had already argued before the Supreme Court over folks -- conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War, people who refused.

I remember, like, a professor in Dallas that refused to sign a loyalty oath.

So, he already was demonstrating what it looked like to challenge authority.

So, those, to me, are the memories of my childhood much more than anything else.

And then of course, when we moved to Austin again, it's the height of the Vietnam War.

My dad is working for labor unions, and he's working for conscientious objectors to the war.

I wore a black armband to school in seventh grade, called in the principal's office, who called my mother to, you know, narc me out.

And of course the only -- You know, his good fortune was she wasn't at home.

And then I remember, too, in seventh grade -- I believe it was the very first Earth Day, which is kind of interesting, the things you remember as a child.

But I remember making a poster for Earth Day.

We didn't know anything about Earth D-- I mean, this was like a whole new idea.

But it completely made such an impression on me that I, then, in seventh grade, got some of my other girlfriends and we started a recycling club in Austin, Texas, which also -- I mean, now recycling's very common.

At the time, my dad thought I was nuts.

And -- But those early experiences really taught me that, if you see a problem, then you got to take a stand and do something, even if it's just your small part.

I do think it sort of set me on the path for the way I spent the rest of my life.

-What was your sex and reproductive education like growing up in Texas?

Did your parents ever talk to you about sex or birth control?

-I would say my experience in Texas growing up with sex education was de minimis.

I think we all remember, as any girl growing up at that time in Texas, we got a -- something from Kotex, which was about sanitary napkins.

That was, like -- That was something -- There was a big assembly that the boys didn't come to.

And there were some little Disney film.

But there was no conversation about birth control or sex.

And, really, with my parents, not until much, much later.

I think they, frankly, like other Texas parents and probably parents of that era -- they were totally ill-equipped.

But it's interesting.

My good friend in junior high -- her mother was a big volunteer at Planned Parenthood.

And so we always knew that Planned Parenthood existed.

if anyone, you know, needed birth control or kind of got into trouble.

But I wouldn't say that my parents played a big role in this.

And it's -- I mean, I know that's true today, is just parents feel really unprepared and not supported.

That's why it was a big part of what we tried to do at Planned Parenthood, is give people the tools and, frankly, young people information, particularly if they couldn't get it from their parents.

-Were you always pro-choice?

-Always.

I mean, really, becoming a mom, I think, is the thing that made me the most adamantly pro-choice.

I have a daughter, an eldest daughter, and then I had twins.

I got pregnant on the campaign, Mom's campaign for governor, and we had twins, which was wild at the time.

And then later I got pregnant.

I was on birth control.

And my husband and I decided not to have another child, so I had an abortion after being a mom.

And all of those experiences really... I mean, they just confirmed and reaffirmed for me that this is a decision nobody can make except the person who's pregnant, because no one has any idea what your life is like.

And it's why I have so much empathy -- You know, a majority of women in this country who have an abortion are already moms.

And so they do that with full recognition of the responsibility, the joy, the obligations of being a parent.

-After college, you worked for years as a labor organizer.

I'm wondering what lessons you learned in that role that you carried with you for the rest of your career.

-You know, when I was in college, I -- As I said, I went away to school.

I went to Rhode Island.

I'd never even been to Rhode Island.

It just like -- It sounded like fun.

And so I was definitely a fish out of water there.

There were very few kids from Texas.

And I immediately got involved in a janitors strike on campus.

And it made a huge influence on me.

It was... Because I was sort of thinking, "Oh, my God, I'm at this, like, really fabulous college and it's progressive and all that.

And then I realized immediately that I was taking the side of the janitors, not the university.

And when I decided to -- You know, when I graduated from school, I became a union organizer.

First I worked with garment workers on the Rio Grande border.

Then eventually I moved to New Orleans, organized hotel workers.

That's how I met my husband.

We were union organizers together, organi-- mainly women working for minimum wage, you know, in nursing homes, in hotels, as janitors, as garment workers.

And it was a huge education for me.

I mean, it probably was the most influential job I've ever had in my lifetime because I spent my days in living rooms, and on street corners talking to people who, despite having very few options, in terms of their employment, were willing to risk everything to try to make things better.

And they knew probably it wasn't gonna get that much better for them.

But they had kids.

They had co-workers.

They lived in communities where they thought it's worth fighting for something.

And that -- I guess that courage and that determination, and having the chance to actually never live the lives that they lived, but really see it for years is probably -- yeah, made the most difference on how I approach work and how I approach my activism.

Particularly, once we moved to California and I was organizing janitors -- These are folks who had actually fought their way, whether it was from Guatemala or Mexico or El Salvador, Honduras, had risked so much.

Many had left their families behind to get to California, where they could work as a janitor.

And most of them were working, of course, two jobs.

They were working at night as janitors, and then they had whatever daytime hustle they could get.

And yet they were willing to risk all of that, everything they had done, to fight for a living wage for janitors, knowing that they could get fired.

And many of them did.

But that kind of -- that kind of courage?

I mean, people used to always say to me, "Wow, your job --" particularly when I worked at Planned Parenthood -- "God, your job must be so hard," you know?

And it's like, listen, there's nothing harder than cleaning 13 hotel rooms a day for minimum wage in New Orleans or working in a nursing home in East Texas with no benefits and no job guarantee.

That's what hard work is.

And I feel like I tried to spend the rest of my life figuring out ways to make life better for the community of people that I, that I worked with.

-How did the job at Planned Parenthood get on your radar in the first place?

And what were you thinking about when you were finally offered it?

-So, I was living in Washington, DC, and I was already deeply into progressive politics.

I had started an organization called America Votes, which was this effort to bring together all the progressive groups that were doing voter education, registration, voter turnout, everything from Planned Parenthood to the Sierra Club to the Human Rights Campaign to EMILYs List.

And so I knew all the folks.

It was a great job.

It was a great organization.

It continues on to this day.

And so I was very familiar with the current leadership of Planned Parenthood at the time.

And so when the job -- When she left... I mean, I knew the job was open, but it never occurred to me that that was a job that I could do.

And the search firm called me.

And as I've said, I was like -- I mean, I was so incredibly honored that I would even be, you know, kind of on the list.

But I almost didn't show up because I just felt like, you know, "I don't know how to do that.

I've never had a job that big."

You know?

All the things.

Fill in the blank.

And so I stopped in a coffee shop and I called my mother and I said, "You know, I just don't think I can do that."

The kids are this -- You know, I've got to get the kids --" All these things.

And she just said, "Cecile, get it together.

This is the most important job you could ever have in your lifetime.

Planned Parenthood is the most important healthcare provider to women in this country.

You will never forgive yourself if you don't try.

And what's the worst thing that could happen?

And honestly, as a result, I went to the interview, and they chose me, as we say And we moved to New York.

I had no idea what I was getting into.

I think that's how a lot of women just -- you know, we just kind of do the next thing that seems it needs doing.

And it was the most extraordinary experience of my lifetime, an enormous honor, incredibly hard.

But, you know, the people that work for Planned Parenthood -- they do so out of a commitment.

So you meet the most amazing people.

And we went through some tough years.

We went through some years where we were able to get amazing things done for women's healthcare, for reproductive healthcare, particularly with President Obama.

-What did you see as your mission as the head of Planned Parenthood?

What was your larger project?

-You know, when I came to Planned Parenthood, I think one of the reasons they hired me is we were doing a fabulous job providing healthcare, you know, millions of patients every year, we were in every single state.

But politics were getting in the way of our ability to care for the patients who were turning to us.

More restrictive laws were being passed.

I mean, it was harder in, you know, more Republican states, red states.

And it was clear we kind of needed to rebuild our movement side, you know, that we -- You know, Planned Parenthood is a very interesting organization because it has these two parts -- a healthcare provider, trusted healthcare provider to millions of folks, but also we're a movement to advance and really make sure that reproductive healthcare is available to everybody, whether they're a Planned Parenthood patient or not.

So, I really was hired, I think, to help on the movement side.

And we did.

I mean, we dramatically increased the membership of Planned Parenthood.

We invested in young people.

I mean, millions of young people joined Planned Parenthood as activists, as leaders.

Some of them have gone on to both lead Planned Parenthood, but also gone and ran for public office, you know?

So, it was really, to me, important that we kind of build this whole new generation of activists.

And then, of course, we had the chance as a movement to influence the Affordable Care Act, which was, frankly, the most dramatic change in access to healthcare in our lifetime.

And if we hadn't been at the table, if we had not had millions of supporters around the country that were pushing forward, we would not have made the progress for -- particularly for reproductive healthcare that we did.

So, that, to me, was incredibly important.

And we elected a lot of good folks, including President Barack Obama.

Or, I would say, we helped elect.

-When did you realize it was time to step down from your role there, and why did you choose to take that step?

-Well, I guess it always felt like 10 years seemed like a good amount of time.

You know, I came up in the progressive movement, and I saw a lot of people who stayed, I think, beyond their sell date, if you will.

You know, these are big, important jobs and they're also amazing jobs.

So, that was sort of my horizon.

I had this dream that we would elect Hillary Clinton president, and that I could sort of like ride off into the sunset.

And, you know, I felt that the organization was in good shape for so many reasons.

And then, of course, that didn't happen.

And so I stayed because we had to fight, really, what was an existential crisis, which was President Trump.

And at that point, Speaker Paul Ryan had pledged to completely defund Planned Parenthood to end all federal funding for the basic care that we provided, to Medicaid patients, primarily.

I mean, this was affordable birth control, pap smears, breast exams, well-women checkups.

For many women with low incomes, Planned Parenthood was the only place in their community they could go.

And so I stayed for that fight.

We won that fight.

But then after I finished that, I knew it was time for a new leader.

I was deeply invested in young leaders of color, not only as part of the organization and part of my staff, but leading the organization.

And so that was it.

It felt like -- Look, I could have stayed another 10, 20 years.

I loved that job.

But I didn't want to overstay my welcome.

And, look, at some point, you go, "You know, I set out to do certain things.

We did them."

I felt really good about what we had done.

And it was -- You can begin to believe your own press too much, right, and think you're the only one who could do it.

And I never wanted to be in that situation.

So, I think I left after 12 years, and it was good.

-You spent a lot of your time since stepping down from Planned Parenthood, working to get more women elected to public office Beyond demographic equity, what do you see as the importance of having more women win public office?

Is there something distinct about women's leadership?

-Yeah, I think women - They just bring a different perspective.

You know, once you've had kids, you have a totally different perspective , on the world.

I mean, it's, like, one of my things I always felt like is, you know, when half of Congress can get pregnant, we're gonna finally quit fighting about access to safe and legal abortion, birth control, Planned Parenthood.

But, you know, all the studies show -- and it may be because we've never been actually -- we've never had equity in office -- that women are more likely to introduce legislation and pass legislation successfully.

They're more likely to work across the aisle with people of another party or point of view.

They're more likely to work with each other as women across party lines.

Most women, particularly now, if they're running for office, they're running for office because there's something they want to get done because there was no one that just tapped them on the shoulder and said, "Oh, wow, you would be great.

As a member of Congress, the burdens are still so big that unless you're really committed to doing something in office, it's hard for women to run.

Now, at some point, maybe the world becomes more equal.

But I do think that the women I know, and particularly young women as they're coming up, as they're, you know, running for school board, running for city council, they're doing it because there's something they want to achieve.

And more likely than not, they do.

-Our series of interviews attempts to convey what moral leadership looks like.

I'm wondering how you define moral leadership and why there's such a need for it now.

-I mean, I think that, as a person growing up where you are -- have the opportunity and/or are kind of forced to witness injustice, whether it's racial or economic, gender, I think moral leadership is doing something about it.

and with all humility.

And it may be something tiny, it may be something big, but I feel like we were put on this Earth to make a difference -- and particularly people like myself who grew up with enormous privilege.

I could do anything I wanted to with my life, right?

To me -- I mean, the gift to me was being able to choose to be an organizer to choose to be a troublemaker.

And so I take that privilege seriously.

And so I guess, for me, moral leadership is taking the gifts that you were given and doing something with them to make the world better.

-So, a lot of progressives take comfort in the edict that the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice.

Is that a notion that you believe in?

-I mean, I guess we all believe or we wouldn't be progressives and we wouldn't be activists, that the arc does bend towards justice, but it needs a lot of help getting there.

And anyone right now in the United States who's a progressive activist, um, has to be wondering how we need to shift and change and adjust in what is becoming an increasingly undemocratic, autocratic, almost totalitarian environment.

And so whether it's the attacks on voting rights, which are just so core to our democracy, whether it's attacks on even just the electoral process, the effort to end access to safe and legal abortion, a right that we've had for 50 years - The thought that we're going backwards in all of these areas, I think, are causing everyone to try to rethink "What more do we need to do?"

Because the rules don't exist anymore like they did for all of our lifetime.

And this is the first time I have felt that so deeply.

So, um, yeah, I believe in progress.

I believe in progressive change.

I also believe it's harder now than ever before.

-Do you ever think about your own legacy?

How would you like to be remembered?

-Mm.

Well, I don't think about my own legacy, but I guess if I had to, I would think about, um - I would hope to be remembered as someone who, um, liked to organize, liked to build community, and had a good time doing it.

I think one of the things that we forget is that life has to be joyful.

And I think organizing and hell-raising and even working in electoral politics can be really fun and hard, but you've got to bring joy to this lifetime.

'cause that's the only way you get other people to come along with you.

And when you do, you make the most amazing friends, people that you will know forever.

♪♪ ♪♪