I'm Lee Rowland. From the ACLU, this is At Liberty. I've spent most of my career practicing law as an ACLU attorney, and now I'm hosting this podcast.

At Liberty will explore today's most hotly debated civil rights and civil liberties

issues. Every week we'll try and make some sense of what's going on in our country,

how we got here, and where we're headed next. I'll be talking with lawyers, experts, and people

fighting for their rights and their communities every day.

Today we're talking with Cecile Richards.

Cecile became president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 2006, right in the middle of George W. Bush's second term in office.

She spent 12 years at the center of heated political debates about women's health and abortion rights before stepping down this past April.

Before joining Planned Parenthood, Cecil had a long history in campaign politics and labor

organizing.

Cecil, thank you so much for making time to be with us today.

Absolutely.

So as we mentioned, you held the reigns of Planned Parenthood for 12, really tumultuous

years through some serious changes.

From a big picture standpoint, if you had to look at the state of women's health in America in 2006 and 2018, would you say we're better or worse off than when you started this journey with Planned Parenthood?

Well, I think in some places we're better off, in some places worse, and certainly from the point of view of the kinds of restrictions are being passed and even upheld on abortion rights.

I do think that those eight years during President Obama and when we were able to pass the Affordable Care Act

and really make very dramatic changes for women expanding Medicaid as well to, you know,

so that hundreds of thousands, really millions

more people were able to get health care coverage.

There were some big significant changes.

I think the one I think about the most that stands out was, of course, the fight over getting

...