'May He have mercy': 4 reactions to death of fmr. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards

Barack Obama, Lila Rose offer condolences, prayer for her soul

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Lila Rose 

Live Action founder and President Lila Rose reflected on the passing of Cecile Richards, stating that the former Planned Parenthood president presided over the deaths of nearly 4 million babies during her tenure. 

“May the Lord, in His perfect justice and infinite mercy, rest her soul,” the pro-life leader wrote in a Monday X post. “And may He have mercy on all of us and our nation.”

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In addition to advocating against abortion, Rose’s organization has published a series of investigative reports documenting illegal or negligent conduct committed by the nation’s largest abortion provider. 

As Live Action noted in its May 2018 “Aiding Abusers” report, Richards often claimed that Planned Parenthood was an advocate for sexual abuse victims. In its report, published the same year Richards retired, the pro-life group documented numerous instances of Planned Parenthood failing to help victims of sexual abuse or human trafficking. 

Denise Fairbanks, one of the victims cited in Live Action’s report, filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region in 2007. The victim alleged that the Planned Parenthood employees ignored her pleas for help after she told them about her father’s abuse. 

Fairbanks’ father had been sexually abusing her since she was 13, according to the lawsuit. In 2004, at age 16, Fairbanks became pregnant as a result of the abuse. Her father took her to a local Planned Parenthood to obtain an abortion.

After failing to report the potential crime to police, the Ohio-based Planned Parenthood sent Fairbanks back home with her father, where she endured his abuse for another year-and-a-half. The girl’s basketball coach later found out about the abuse and reported it to the authorities, according to the lawsuit. 

In its “Aiding Abusers” report, Live Action also highlighted the results of a 2011 undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood. 

Throughout the investigation, undercover operatives posing as sex traffickers at multiple Planned Parenthood facilities asked staffers how to obtain abortions or treatments for sexually transmitted infections for their 14- and 15-year-old prostitutes. 

One employee at a New Jersey-based Planned Parenthood appeared to coach the undercover investigators on how to lie about the girls’ ages to avoid mandatory reporting requirements.