sign the books that all of you, if you do not have one yet they are a payable upstairs in store. if you give us just a minute we'll get marked up there and have you and will get the line started. thank you all for coming and we'll see you at our next event in the next few weeks. [inaudible conversations] .. >> good evening everybody.

[applause] my name is pam thornton and i'm director of the library and we are happy to be here this evening. one bit of housekeeping, please turn your cell phones off or put them on vibrate or whatever you prefer. all right? the other thing is at the end of the program,please remain seated . we're going to have you exit in orderly fashion for those of you who want books signed and those who don't so we will get to that later. tonight, we are honored to have two amazing leaders and role models . cecile richards is a leader in the field of women's health, reproductive rights and social change.

she began her career helping garment workers, hotel workers and nursing home aides fight for better working conditions. after years in the labor movement, she moved back home to texas to help elect the state's first democratic women governor, her mother and richards. she went on to start her own grassroots organization and served as deputy chief of staff to house democrat leader nancy pelosi . in 2011 and 12 she was named one of time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. richards is the former president of planned parenthood federation of america. and the planned parenthood action fund and is a frequent speaker and commentator on

issues related to women's rights activism . ourmoderator for this evening , hillary rodham clinton -- [applause] has a long career of civic engagement as a politician, first lady, senator and secretary of state. she's a passionate supporter of humans rights, women's rights and equal rights. in 2017 after her campaign to become president of the united states, she founded a group called on work together which encourages physical engagement of young leaders to organize, involve and run for office. she is also a best-selling author, a local author whose titles include takes a village and other lessons children teach us, our choices and what happens?

the chronicle over 2017 campaign for president, amore popular candidate if there ever was one . [applause] please join me in welcoming to the stage cecile richards and hillaryrodham clinton . [applause] >> hello. thank you also much. thank you.

thank you so much, wow. it's great to hold this event in the new chappaqua performing arts center. i think it's a great addition to chappaqua and i want to thank the library for helping putthis on and sponsoring it. thank you very much, pam. and to all of you who are here, not a seat left for this conversation . i am absolutely delighted to be the one lucky enough to ask some questions and share some observations with cecile. i highlyrecommend her book , make trouble. it's a great read. i love the words on the top. standing up, speaking out and finding the courage to leave.

that's true right now for everyone so i thank her for really telling her story, but in a way that inspires others to think about what each of us can do. and so welcome to chappaqua. [applause] >> now i know why you live here, these are really nice people. >> isn't it nice? we love it. we're a little tired of the rain but it's a beautiful place with a lot of wonderful people. we have a lot to cover. there's so much to talk about and i've usually been on the receiving end of questions. some better than others, i will tell you but i have thought a lot about what i could ask cecille but i want to tell her and tell all of you that whatever direction you want to take this in, this group is going to be interested because we are

excited to have you here and really to celebrate your leadership which has been so extraordinary. [applause] now, i recently wrote a book as pam said and it wasn't, it wasn't easy to do. and i really found it to be a kind of authority challenging but ultimately rewarding experience and one of the best parts was traveling around talking to people, meeting them, hearing their concerns and their questions and i wanted to ask you what's it been like being on this book to work? your book came out and you've been all over the country and what have you heard? what have you seen? what have you felt about all the encounters and events that you? >> thank you for writing your

book because it was cathartic for all of us. it was so important and you were so personal in it and talked about all the things that we all lived through in one way or another so i appreciate that and it's an important time for us to tell the stories so we can move on and do more. the book tour has been fantastic but it's been less like a bookstore and more like revivals around the country. i think and i know, i'm so curious what you're saying is you're speaking everywhere. i've been organizing my whole life and i've never seen the outpouring of grassroots organizing. people not waiting for instructions, not waiting for someone to ask them to do something in there showing up at these book events to talk about the book but also the

theme of the book which is what do we do in this time? it's been incredibly inspiring and not just the usual suspects. there are people like us have been doing this all their lives but i'm meeting women in their 80s that are now showing up planned parenthood health centers in volunteering every week and young women in their teens who are absolutely on fire. so it's been really, even in the wake of this disastrous presidency and we don't have to go there too deeply, but it's just been, i think you have theopposite reaction and some people expected. that theynot only with the women's marches, the largest marches in the history of the united states of america , which was great . [applause] but people could have justtaken their hats off and gone home but they kept going so that's what i've been seeing . >> one of the parts of your book that i laughed out loud over was your determination to knit your own pussy.

that's what we do, right? if we don't know how to do it we learn and it wasn't pretty, but i didn't. i just love that. eventually you had to go seek expert help out and getting shot, as i recall. >> i did but there are people here who needed their own pussy. i arrived in the knitting shop frantic because i only had a couple days left and there was more pink yarn than the eye could see in the minute i got in there, women are trading hats, trading ideas. they got their daughters in it. it was somewhat a metaphor for what we are seeing, women coming together and doing extraordinary things like knitting a hat . >> i find that really gratifying. there is a beginning and an end and you just keep going andthen you go on to the next thing . you know, in this book,

there's so many great stories and i want to cover as much ground as possible but one that really struck me was how when you were invited for the interview for the job to be president of planned parenthood, you almost didn't go. and in the way it comes across in the book is you weren't sure.you weren't sure you wanted it or get it, you were kind of up in the air about it. and it struck me that still, for a lot of women and a lot of young women, when they are asked to apply for a job or take on new responsibilities, they are also up in the air, they're not sure so tell us about your experience but also then because you became the leader for 12 years of this very important hundred-year-old organization and you have a lot of women and a lot of young women working across the country.

so talk about your journey and then how you try to encourage more women to take on more responsibility. >> it's funny because i know you write about in your book women a lot of times, this is what happened to me, when they asked me to interview, of course i was just like, what me? i had all the reasons, i wasn't qualified, i've never taken on, i was use to running these scrappy nonprofits and planned parenthood it was like oh my gosh. i really was this close to not going to the interview and i stopped in a coffee shop. i called my mother. i said mom, i don't think i can do this and the kids are too young for this and that. she just said, i don't know if you ever met my mother but she was not having it. she just said to seal, get it together. this is the most important

opportunity of your lifetime. you will never forgive yourself and what's the worst that could happen? she always use to say that which is really helpful because as women westart protecting all the things that are going to happen rather than just doing the next . and of course many of you know my mom said right after that and didn't even live until the end of the year so in many ways it was the last gift my mother gave me was to get me to go to interview and i am so grateful to her and i carry her with me everyday. i'm wearing hurricane, my sheriff's badge . but i'm grateful she did and that was mom's attitude, this is the only life you have now and no regrets. your other point, we had so many incredible people, if i could just shout out the people who go to workevery day. it's so amazing. just fearless . but, i think you have the

same experience. i've had so many women, brilliant, talented, ambitious and when they are offered a new job or a raise or a promotion there like, i know this one woman said i had finished my phd yet. i have never had a man in my entire lifetime say i just don't think i'm ready for that, that new opportunity so this is a time i think were women. you're smilingbecause i know you seem to . >> and i've seen it, i know. of all the young women that i hired and promoted and have worked for me over the years and all the young men who i'm equally fond of, you're absolutely right. youask a young woman , i think you can take on more responsibility, i'd like to see you try this and the first five minutes are all

the reasons why that's not a good idea. with a young man is like, what took you so long? did you ever use the words that your mother told you? what's the worst that can happen? >> absolutely. for my own daughter and other women that i meet, i do think that's what we're seeing in these book events, that's mainly what women are asking . what should i do? in some ways this is a moment where, there's a lot of amateur is sprinkled through the book but she waited a long time before she got to actually be liberated. people say what was it like having cecile richards as a mother and she was just my mother. she was a housewife and you know, you know the background. it wasn't until much later she got, the women's movement

came along and she just lost hermind. there was no going back . she was so impatient for women to not wait to be asked. and i think this is a moment right now in this country, if there were ever a moment for women not to wait to be asked . >> amen, i agree with that. [applause] >> let's talk a little bit more about your mom because she was hugely influential to so many of us. and one of the many pieces of advice that you share in the book which, when i mentioned it to you, you will know that it came as something of a boost to me. her advice was if you are going to be a woman in the public eye, you will save yourself trouble if you pick a hairstyle and stick with it.

>> i think she gave you that advice. >> now you know how i feel. >> she had a lot of opinions. and but generally, pretty practical, good advice. >> she had a lot of opinions and they were usually correct though it was better to go along with them. >> say yes because you are going to get there anyway. she was someone who obviously inspired you as she didthough many others . and it was interesting in your book where, when you have, and you had to very active parents. the father was an active civil rights lawyer involved in all different kind of things. your mom ended up running for office. so when you became old enough to go to college, you decided to go far away, spread your

own wings and off you went to brown but you were brown only for a year? then you decided you have to go be an activist yourself and eventually came back but talk about how you found your own path. similar to your parents values and ideals and activism, but you really needed your own and ended up being a labor organizer. >> this was not the career path that most brown universitygraduates took . there was no one recruiting for a labororganizer when i was at school but it was funny to go away . i never really got out of texas much and those were not the days when people took their kids and looked at colleges. my father has still never been to rhode island . so it was really like your out there on your own and it took a while for me to find my fellow troublemakers, i

guess but it wasn't brown. one, i got an excellent education. it's an incredible school but it was also a place where i learned to question authority. there was a janitor's strike that i really got involved in. there was the move to divest from south africa and at the time that was unheard of. it was interesting as a social justice organizer and the work we are all in, you begin to realize that justice doesn't come immediately. can be a long haul and one of my best experiences wasn't brown when we fought to divest from south africa. i didn't go to graduation because someone had to unfurl the banner from the second floor window. and it seemed like why not me? but the good thing is, they thought we were crazy.the administration, this is never going to happen. brown became one of the first universities to divest from south africa.

movement been became important in the international movement to change what was going on in the apartheid government and 30 years later, they gave nelson mandela an honorary degree. i know a lot of times people now want to know what to do because they think they can just do one thing and it would all be better. you heard that all the time after the election . sometimes you don't know exactly what the impact will be but you have to keep doing the right thing and the art of history bends toward justice but sometimes it takes a long time. >> i think that's an important message. you don't know that until after you start the day that you will have theresults you hope for and even expect right away . and in fact there are a lot of setbacks and so many challenges and because you decided when yougraduated from brown that you were

going to be a full-time organizer, you really decided that that was your mission , your purpose. i think that's moreimportant than the short-term goal that you are trying to set . if you know i want to be on the side of justice, on the side of people who need their voices heard and there is such really great stories in your book about organizing and i'm starting with janitors at brown but going on and nursing home workers in east texas which was not aneasy place to organize . and you met with them in living rooms and truck stops everywhere. but the stories you tell and the really vivid portrayals you give of these hard-working people who get up every day and do do the job that we all take for granted and need done, but which we don't particularly value and we don't treat the people who do them with the

dignity they deserve. so kind of run through all of your organizing experiences from east texas to la. >> again, i feel like knowing your history and having read, we do come out of the same area of the country where there are folks just struggling to make a living and to make it by. i did start in southern texas . the president spent time registering voters and there's still a lot that hasn't been done and the current governor in texas, things are getting better but it was organizing garment workers, spending time with hotel workers in new orleans working for the minimum wage, women working two shifts just to keep their families together. texas, african-american women in east texas where the only job you could get were the nursing home or if walmart

opened up, maybethere yet these women with , they didn't have to nickels to rub together and yet they were willing to take the risk to even lose that job to fight for something better for themselves and their families and their communities and that was so inspiring. sometimes now in this work that i do, a lot of the same women depend on planned parenthood, i feel like my life has some full circle which is why congress, i'm sorry, i don't mean to keep getting political but i want to say to them, women don't come to planned parenthood to make apolitical statement, they come because they need affordable healthcare . in many parts of the country, planned parenthood is it . but i realized every day what a privilege i have had to be a troublemaker, if you will. because a lot of holes don't get to choose what they do for a living. most of the country, they don't get to choose.

we get to choose,the folks in this room or the most part . so i think it's also helped me to recognize that privilege and also to recognize the obligations that i think we all have to do more than we are doing. that's the bottom line truth right now. and as my friend lauren peterson, he says if you're not scaring yourself, you're probably not doing enough right now. but it's not just in your spinach book and i hope one of the things that comes out of his is being involved in social change, being involved in historic elections and opportunities and campaigns and it cannot only change the world, it will change your life because you will meet the most amazing people. >> one of the amazing people you met is your husband. >> and you all, just reading this you have so much fun. there you were fighting every day to try to more pay and

safer working conditions for hotel workers in new orleans or for nursing home workers in east texas or for janitors in la. but you were having fun. you lived in these tiny rented houses. one of them you moved in in east texas and neighbors came over and said thank goodness. what did they tell you? >> i don't know if you've ever been to tyler, texas. we had a van packed with all our earthly possessions. the couple next door brought us tyler roseswhich was the thing to do there said we are so glad you moved in because there has been a negro family that had been living there before you were . little did they know , that our house /union organizing center became the gathering spot forevery

african-american woman in tyler , texas. >> i love that story. >> also, just the partnership that you incurred. from the very moment you began working together, i guess in new orleans or was it washington? also, i love the setting of the scene where you are trying to raise money through organizing efforts and you're going around telling ride fish sandwiches or dinners? >> we did anything. once you sold fried fish suffers for a living, you will never star. kurt is here tonight actually and he's kind of the hero of this whole book. so thank you kirk. gail king was like, i like her she read the book and said i want to meet kirk . so anyway, he's become kindof famous .

but then you went to la and it was a bit of a culture shock between east texas and new orleansand la but the problems were the same . the same kind of issues, huge skyscrapers in houston. >> in los angeles. essentially being cleaned by immigrant janitors who, many of whom had, their stories of getting to the united states just to make something better of their lives. and how frightening what they had been through was. just even to get to la and then they are working at minimum wage and of course for women, working nights in these buildings was terrible. and yet they were willing to resolve to organize and of course, they send half their paycheck back home to whatever country their families were living in but that was one of those examples where it was a great

organizing example because we organized all of downtown los angeles and eventually's century city and all the janitors in that city that work for these big buildings earn a living wage with full benefits and that would never have happened if folks hadn't organized. just to say, working with immigrants which i did for a long time every single day, to see what is being said about immigrants is so wrong and not just heartbreaking, it is maddening because as we know in most parts of the country, immigrants do work that no one else will do and they have built the country and continue to do it every day and they deserve better from us . [applause] >> that's becoming clearer because i've been as you might guessfollowing this .

you have a lot of agricultural groups including as i've recently seen the agriculture commissioner of texas begging for more workers because a lot of their traditional seasonal or even year-round workers have fled or been deported. we have crops rotting in the fields in california so just take that one sector of our economy and you know, food has been relatively inexpensive in the united states compared to the rest of the world and we are making more and more expensive while losing a lot of the people with the expertise and experience to do the work and you can go into other industries and find the same. your daughter was born when you were in la, that's what i thought. you have three kids, you want to tell everybody aboutyour three wonderful kids western mark . >> there's lily, the first wonderful child.

and richards loved this little girl. i feel like iwas just the genetic connection . of course, she got to do a lot of campaign work, work for a lot of amazing people but nothing touches you like or working in your campaign. glenn, pam and daniel, they are also both troublemakers in their own way. daniel is a chemistry student and hannah is an organizer. so i'm very blessed, very, verylucky . >> obviously i've gotten to know lily really well because she did work for me and you and i share the lily collection and also the lauren peterson connection because she works for me as well. we also have reviews about highly qualified, extraordinary young women.

you're in la and you and kurt are working really hard organizing janitors, primarily immigrants but all of a sudden your mother calls you.so what did anna have to say this time? >> mom had made the democratic convention speech in atlanta and you may remember, they stop me. repeat the lines and they're just like well, she was state treasurer of texas which is not ahigh-profile job , not now but anyway, she decided she wanted to run for governor and this was the days when it was like, it all comes home. mom needs you and we pack up the u-haul, put lily in her car seat and we drove to texas and helped her become the first woman elected in her own right governor of the state of texas and it was

awesome. >> i particularly love the stories and the scene setting up that campaign in texas. it reminded me of my campaigns and particularly campaigns in arkansas because there were a lot of county fairs and special events. watermelon events and pumpkin events and, evans and all kinds of events. you have not lived until you've been to the yamboree festival in dilbert where they celebrate by gams. >> well, yams are important. but they gave me a corsage. i'm just saying. >> just the stories of being out there day in and day out, often with lily and sometimes with your siblings and just going from place to place.

i have to say, that when campaigning was fun. it's hard to describe because it's now a different beast, but back in the back and ran and we were going from county to county and even in my first race in new york, it was so personal and you got to know people and you spent time with people and you look them in the eye and you list them in the eye and you build the connection. social media and everything else, that has become ardor and harder and it has unfortunately really underlined our politics but in the campaign, you and kurt and your family were just totally focused. and she wanted and it was such a great victory and not only did she win but she brought hundreds of thousands of people literally to austin when she was sworn in and she did a great job but there was one moment that i remember and you write about where

they vetoed a bill and she knew it was going to hurt her. what was that? >> it's extraordinary now to think about it but there was a bill that allow people to carry concealed handguns. and mom just thought it was wrong and she used it to say i don't know a woman who can find her lipstick in her purse, much less i handgun that's going to save her if she's attacked. but ironically, so she did. she vetoed that bill and it did cost her. she was defeated in her reelection. george bush. but of course now, the state of texas, for start carrying concealed handguns, they are just carrying guns everywhere . it is so devastating to see what happened in a relatively short period of time.

and what frankly the gun lobby has done. people ask alot of times if there were one thing you could wave a wand and change about this country it would be , to me, to get rid of this insanity we have about guns andassault weapons everywhere and get back to common sense gun laws in america . [applause] >> i think that's a perfect story to illustrate, because this was in the early 90s. this was not six years ago. and determined interest organizations and individuals on the other side never, ever quit. they were relentless and i'm hoping that because of the

courage and said involvement of the young parkland students and others, that we will make common sense gun safety a voting issue. because the other side, that is their issue, period. bar none. and this audience and the two of us,we care about a lot of things and as a result, we are not single-minded . you have to take unfortunately a lesson from how effective the other sides organizing turned out to be. the next stop on this amazing making trouble journey, after you did work in texas helping to organize again, and activist group, you were off to washington and you helped start an organization called america votes. how was that?

>> it was a realization we had that there were all these great organizations in the country. the sierra club and planned parenthood and emily's list and the labor movement but none of them, they actually didn't even know each other. the heads of these organizations have never met i said what if we all sat down at the table and figured out registering which voters, whose talking to which voters and who's turning out which voters? instead of everybody talking to the same five people we might spread it out. it still exists to this day and it's been interesting to see, i think i have the pleasure and honor of working for planned parenthood where we built our capacity to work in this arena but some areas, they're not sending out the messenger and i think we learned is in pittsburgh is better for planned parenthood. volunteer with the

steelworkers and go to door to door so that's what we do. it was a strategic move to use their dollars more intelligently and build the kind of relationships that frankly today, we really need. this is the time more than ever in my lifetime people are recognizing that being a single issue group without recognizing how all of this, how we are all connected together , it's the way we are going to change what's happening in america. some of those relationships have continued on today and have helped do things like defeat the effort last year to repeal obama care. >> i know there's so much debate and so much unfair, unjustified attacks on planned parenthood. what would you like people, not just this audience but

people in america. what's the one thing you wish everybody understood about planned parenthood? >> i guess that we provide healthcare, 2 and a half billion people every year and for many of those, we are there only health care provider. one in five women in this country have needed health care including me when i went to college and had no idea where to go and for all of the naysayers including a lot of people that are incongress right now , we do more planned parenthood to reduce unintended pregnancy in any organization in america and we do that work every single day. so for all the. [applause] >> i go to a lot of health centers and we have with picket signs and yelling at women trying to get into a health center and i want to roll down the window and say

if you wanted to reduce abortion in this country, you'd put down your sign and volunteer because we'redoing more to get birth control to women than any other organization in america . >> that's what is so frustrating about this today because we are i believe right now at an all-time low in abortions. since roe versus wade. we are headed in the right direction . if you don't approve that's not your choice, you can say love, what we're doing is working. even if you are on the other side. and we also see unfortunately no this on planned parenthood is an attack on family planning. isn't it on birth control. >> so that's what's always bottling the mind. the fulton congress you're

referring to, they don't stop their criticism their difference regarding abortion. they go on to try to limit planned parenthood's ability to provide cancer screenings, to provide protection and treatment for stds, for helping women get referrals for all kinds of physical and mental elements.as well as describing birth control. how did this? this became so much flashpoint when again, if you look at the facts and if you really care about these issues, you would give the planned parenthood vote of confidence? >> i think as we know, the unfortunately, the moderate republicans have been really shot and althoughi want to say , the big fight over this

last year and a half to preserve access to planned parenthood and access to the affordable care, wouldn't have anything to win! we got to republicans, even collins and lisa murkowski. we recognize that but i think the way that this president in particular and his administration is, and frankly the congressional leaders, paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, they are playing too, paul ryan is retiring so i'll just say that it is incredible to me that, as you say, it's one thing if they say we're going to try everything we can to abortion . but right now, his ministration is trying to take away the right of women to give birth control in their insurance plans by letting your boss decide whether you get birth control. under obamacare we won 46.2 women in this country anything revolutionary,

exchanged everything. so they're going to do that. now even though with the lowest rate of pregnancies in the history of the us, they are now entering the teen pregnancy program. and most recently and i think maybe even being announced tonight by the president whose taking a antiabortion group, there are now trying to, i know you're familiar with the global. we have lived through this. when republicans came in office. this administration is now trying to roll out a domestic battle which would offend, this is important because everyone needs to be aware. this is going to beenormously important . basically saying you provide, you can no longer participate in the family planning program in discovery which, 4 million do. if you are a doctor, you cannot, and you participate

in the family planning program, even if you don't perform abortions, you cannot refer a patient to an abortion provider. your guiding medical providersfrom giving medical advice, it is completely legal to their patients. this is never happened in america . we have gone far beyond anything that anyone ever imagined and the only way we are going to win this fight is if people are going to have to rise up to say we are not going to go to a place where doctors and america women. >>. >> and you know, i guess going to try to, they will probably push through the house and i don't know what will happen in bed and i understand their data pool, there's not even exceptions for rape or incest. >> they were going to roll it

out friday and then surprise, they were organized and ready to do it. so we're literally right now even as we are coming on stage, texas just becoming available so i don't know the specifics but it's bad. it's really bad and the good thing is doctors, physician groups, they are all opposing this. it's going to be not only the women's health community but the medical community rising up and saying we're not going to go to a place where doctors are not allowed to take care of their patients. anyone who is interested, go to planned parenthood and stay in touch with them. they will roll out what's happening and even doing a rally this week but again, this is just women's health but we can talk about so many examples. administration, just going back to not the 1950s, the 1890s. it's frightening. >> it's part of this all out assault on facts and evidence

and reason. you mentioned teenage pregnancy in the 90s, i helped start a national campaign to try to curb teen pregnancy and we tried a lot of different things and then we got the evidence about what works and guess what? real information to both young women and young men about being responsibleand providing guidance to them . answering their questions because so many of them have nowhere else to go. you do a lot of that counseling planned parenthood and the net result is as you rightly say, we have the lowest result of teenage pregnancy in our country's history and now they want to basically get rid of all the evidence-based work that has done over the course of 25 years and they want to go

back to what they call abstinence only which doesn't work. it worked you could say okay, here's your choice. you can have, evidence-based effective approach for this other approach but we know what works with young people. there's so much. information and they get so much, they are exposed to so much information that is neither reflective of caring responsible behavior and relationships or even just basic information so this is what is so troubling and as you say, it's not just in this arena, it is across the board. ideology driving policy, not facts, not, notresult . and you probably were in the center of the forum more than anybody else in the country after the election. >> you been to. >> in fact, i have to say, some of you know i sent 5+

hours in front of one congressional committee. which was unbelievable, the first call i when i got out of that hearing was from this woman right here. >> it meant, and i think , it's important to say that because that's just what you do. that's the person you are. you will never know how much that meant to me and i do think this sign in which the world feels like it's falling apart in so many ways, is that connection we have with each other and that we encourage each other and we stand with each other. you can't underestimate how it's going to help get us through. i just want to say thank you for that and you kick. [bleep] in that hearing. youwere amazing . and jason jacobs is retired. so. [applause] >> i think both of our

experiences, dare i say a massive sexism, the way that they talk down to you, talk over you, i was watching in real time. and then of course my own 11 hours of experience in front of some of the same people. after you. but you use the word connection, that's an important word. so is the word empathy. we've lost the willingness or the ability to empathize with others and their struggles. and you know, with respect to planned parenthood, i so many women across the country who told me their stories, told me their incredibly painful, when stories . so many of them told me about being diagnosed with cancer.

the only place they could go, they had no insurance. they paid too much money for medicaid. they were old enough daycare so planned parenthood was the place they found out they needed treatment and were encouraged and supported as they were referred. story after story. why is it that we've lost this ability to see each other through the other side? your mother was a master, you're a master. you are able to connect with people and hear their story and then you go immediately to what are we going to do about it and how are we going to help you or solve the problem. how we get back to? such an american way of being and yet we seem to be getting distracted and diverging away from actuallyworking with each other . >> i think that's, i didn't hear it, that's what was the big thing both for me when i sat down because my first statement was about a woman,

dana ferris, in dallas who had gotten, broader graduate. husband lost her job, she wasn't working. there was no place for her to go planned parenthood. they not only detected her breast cancer but insisted that she go and get immediate attention. work all the way through her treatment and i tell this story which is, it's the story that millions of women experience and i could have been reading doctor seuss. they could care less about what was happening to this woman. that is why i do think, i always look at it as an organizer, you are looking at the opportunity. as when organizing like crazy. they are concerned, the concernedabout healthcare, about their kids , their kids going to school and being a safe place.

about taking care of their parents and i really do believe that women are figuring out that voting is the most important thing they can do to determine the future of this country. so it's, i may know the difference. they know the difference of and elected officials who are just talking or the ones who are actually listening. so i think it's important right now. we remember the things i have this election. african-american women elected a senator in alabama. that wasunbelievable . and we saw in virginia, i know that was a race that you were really involved in, ralph more than elected with a 22 point with women, the first transgender woman ever elected to the assembly. the first latinas ever elected tothe virginia assembly . there's a theme here.

i do believe that women are, they are concerned. pathetic as i say, it's important. marches were great, knitting was fun, pulling hundreds. showing a town hall meeting voting, old deal. that's what we'vegot to get done . >> you worked for one of the most effective women in history of american politics, nancy posey. she knows how both and she knows how to get things done. she is probably responsible more than anybody for the passage of the affordable care act . she has, she has an extraordinary sense of duty and responsibility and how long did you work for her? >> it was only for a hot second. i realized i don't know what i'm doing and i am better out. i worked almost years but it was like taking a graduate

course in the hill. it was the most amazing experience and i told that to women and say it's okay job and find out it's not the right one for you because you're still going to learn. i tell the story about nancy and i want to go into great detail minusshe was the most underappreciated leader . and in congress, why is there always saying women should retire. i think we need more women in, less but in case there was during the affordable care that final moment where there were the boats. we had taken a very tough position in planned parenthood, a long meeting with board there was an abortion ban, we would not support it and we work as hard as anybody to bring this bill to the floor. and i have to go visit with nancy because i have to tell her, i know you work hard on this bill that we're not going to be to support and i sat down in her office and she said i'm glad you're here.

we don't have the votes. i'm working it, we're working on it too. before i could say another word she said i want you to know, you're trying to put an abortion ban in this bill. she said there's an abortion in the affordable care act, there will be an affordable care act because i will ban. that was nancy posey that was in fact, and i'll never forget, friday night getting a call from rosie delauro because she was in there from the great state of connecticut and she said i believe it, the women, we held our ground and we began and there were willing to throw abortion rights overboard but nancy and i and these other women, we stuck and through our bodies in front of the scheduler and we will be. that's just an example of the kind of leader nancy is. >> i have to you for the incredible campaigning you did for me all over the country.

>>. [applause] >> i'm very proud of the campaign and very proud of literally millions of people who helped to volunteer, to runthe staff . outpouring of effort and we crossed a few times in a few fun and exciting places. and it is so great to see the kind of energy that we saw in the campaign. and it was a lot of women. predominantly, i think. but it was just a great joyous adventure. and i am very grateful for

everybody involved. i will remember the dinner you write about in the book. we were in cedar rapids iowa and we were staying at a hotel run by the kirkwood community college hospitality department. they had all these students . >> i was back there. >> i went there like five times. i've spent a lot of time there and it was so much fun because the students, the leaders and the mactre d''s and all that. and you and kirk were with us. there was just a lot of highlights and i think of seeing you coming to a crowd with your blonde hair, usually somewhere in the distance making your way forward and then thanks for speaking at the convention . >> it's been amazing

experience, i'm so proud of the convention . and all the positive stories that we told. but you thought about your mother because you thought about what you should wear. don'twe think about these things all the time? really . >> that was my mother, yes. >> we didn't make it, unfortunately and it was tragic. and profoundly sad and terrible for the country. [applause] but then afterwards, you were in one of the most unique positions, because it wasn't clear how much the campaign of, what

shall i say? the president now. 45. how much he meant and how much he can.a lot of postelection interviews were i didn't think he meant it or i wanted to change and shake things up and all that kind of conversation but you gotta call not too long after the election, which you write about. it was before the inauguration. why don't you tell everybody about that? because that was an incredible story and i'm so glad you sharedthat with the public . >> this was the one about getting a call, meeting with ivanka. atthat point of course , folks planned parenthood were all really worried because we didn't know but certainly we knew we had a lot of experience with his running mate, mike pence.

the architect of trying to defund planned parenthood but we were obviously concerned. i got a message in a roundabout way that ivanka wanted to meet about planned parenthood. i'll be honest, i didn't want to go. i had already seen what they had done to vice president gore where they said they wanted to meet about climate change and then did everything. anyway, there was no trust. >> .. >> .. thank you. we went out to some golf course that is owned by the president in new jersey, and this is what

planned parenthood does and this is what it would mean it in fact, you defund planned parenthood. i think it's important, planned parenthood is not in the federal budget. we are not. we work like every other hospital and healthcare provider and that women unmedicated of public programs come to us for services we get reimbursed. >> you don't use any federal money for abortions. >> it illegal, we don't, and it's wrong and low income women in this country have suffered as a result for many, many years but that is, in fact, the law. that's one explained we see 2.5 million patient every year. they come to us from some public program. this would be devastating. in paul ryan's own district where three health centers in his district and none of them provide abortion services. they all treat women for cancer screening, birth control and the rest.

anyway, jared really took the lead on the meeting. it seemed like he thought kurt worked for me or something. he was like i read a lot about your business and you run a great business. he kept looking at her. no, he's a witness. [laughing] he thought a participant. but basically, and i ponca said she didn't say much because you said my father, i was a disappointed commute into something nice about my father in the election since he said something good about planned parenthood. and i was just in disbelief. i said, he did say that we provide healthcare to a lot of people and you knew a lot of people by planned parenthood. the city was going to defend us. what part was i supposed to, what was the thank you part of that? fading away the proposal was it we would, , he thought he could work a deal if we could provide abortion services to women in this country, that he would talk

to paul ryan and maybe get us even more funding than we currently get. i said that's not going to happen because we are never going to abandon women in women's right in exchange for money. that's not who we are. [applause] will it was pretty astounding. he said he would just like to see a headline the said planned parenthood quits providing abortions. i said that's not what happened. we took our leave, and basically then we went out and beat them. we went out and basically folks all around the country rallied, went to town hall meetings, never gave up. because of literally hundreds of thousands of people in this country who stood up for planned parenthood, including a lot of our patients, our doors are still open all across the united states of america.

[applause] and women are grateful. >> you know, , you've been on te road a lot, been on the road for 12 years with planned parenthood. you were on the road for obama campaigns, for my campaigns, , r other people running for office. i have a few questions about some tips you might have for people on the road. for example, what's your favorite food you eat when you are on the road? >> definitely breakfast tacos. it's hard to get them. i hear a fan. >> may be you you better tell my friends what a breakfast taco is. [laughing] >> i know. it's so hard, you just have to go to austin and have a real one. that's all i can say. it's hard to find good talkers, the tortillas on the road. -- tacos. road food, it's not -- if you're

in texas it's good because there's a dairy queen in every town so you can get a dip cone anywhere in the state of texas. >> you are an ice cream van. >> i am an ice cream van but i'm a pipe and. i make pies. >> you give a passion endorsement of butter overlord. >> if there's -- over lard. >> if there's anyone who is not to get out that butter makes a better piecrust see me afterwards. [laughing] you only carry one bag. you never check it. >> never check a bag. can i hear an amen on that? never check a bag. [applause] >> what are your essentials in that bag? a few changes of clothes, how do you do it? >> you have to have steamer, the most important thing, a portable steamer. what's kind of, i'm wearing this

pantsuit, it's kind of funny, navy blue. this is the pantsuit i wore when we endorse you when image in new hampshire. i'm crazy but i but i just, ito meaningful to me. navy blue, doesn't wrinkle, never shows dirt come as my would say. it was alarming at some point i was wearing navy blue suit so much that astarte getting offered discounts at the airport. people would say which airline do you work for? [laughing] and it was really bad one night i was walking down the aisle in the airplane and some guy stopped me and asked me for a pillow. [laughing] so you've got to mix it up a little bit. >> i told trend what i was determined was going to wear pink and thankfully it got cool because this is it. so as you think about the struggle ahead, because you let

planned parenthood, but your voice is going to be out there. this book has really given a great deal of insight into what you've done and how you think and kind of your energy to be active and stand up for people. how do you keep going? how do you find the sort of personal resilience? people always ask me that, they say how do you keep going? it's a hard question to answer because you just sort of summit it up and keep going, but you du have any other reflections on that? >> one thing is what's the alternative? we know what's going to happen if we don't do anything. that's unacceptable, so some ways it's just a big motivator. i do think this is a time when you have to take care of each other more because this is hard. there are aggressions against, not just as the people we love, immigrant people, lgbtq people,

muslim people. and so i think it is important to recognize that it's not about me or, it's about a lot of people are counting on all of us to do more. that is in some ways very comforting to know there is a purpose and that there is an opportunity here i know what i did this last year and a half, which was, everyday we are in this fight with his administration, this congress but a friend of mine from austin said to be something which is really helpful turkey said look, just think about this with her every single day that planned parenthood doors to open, that's about, do the math. i did the math and it was something like 8165 people got healthcare. a lot of those folks if we were not open they wouldn't be getting health care and that was a big motivator for me. so i think we all have to pick the small battles where winning right now and recognize it's all going to add up to something more. i also think what's important,

this is what, i'm so proud of our planned parenthood folks who are here. when not just a healthcare provider. that was an important part we are a movement in this country. we grew from 3 million supporters when i started. we are now knew of 12 million supporters and united states of america, which is not that it's competition but twice the size of the national rifle association. [applause] is we get all 12 million of those folks and all the other millions of folks that are concerned about what's going on in this country to organize collectively and exercise our right to vote, we will change the direction of america and that's what i am keenly focused on in these next few months and that keeps me going. [applause] >> it's important to keep going because we also have real-world examples of what happens if we don't keep going, and probably

the most painful of those is in your home state of texas. because texas has done more to defund planned parenthood and to shut clinics that anyplace else in the country right now. what have we seen? we've seen a significant increase in abortions. we've seen a significant increase in maternal mortality. women are dying in pregnancy and giving birth in texas at the rate of a third world country. and so when we talk about this, i mean obviously cecile and i are very passionate about these issues that we care about and that she she's been so devoted, but it's not as though we don't know what the alternative is. rural west texas or about in south texas may seem very far away, but that's where you can see the results of these kinds

of policies being implemented. >> no, that's exactly right. it's so hurtful to rescue texas as a cautionary tale. it's my home state. all the rest of my family lives up there, but it is an example of what happens when you put politics ahead of peoples lives and healthcare. that is absolutely what's happened in texas. but it is also a place where people have been amazingly resilient. i am so proud of my colleagues down there with planned parenthood. not only have they continued to stay open. they just opened a new planned parenthood, brand-new planned parenthood health city you can see from the freeway in waco texas my hometown. we just started providing transgender services in east texas. and get this. we opened up online appointment making. in the week we opened those appointments to the folks could plan ahead, we were booked out

for three months. that's the kind of work that's happening. i feel like that we know what works. it means getting people healthcare. getting people healthcare without stigma, without shame, without judgment. and i feel like we just have to continue to stay the course. one last thing on that because i have been very focused in my time at planned parenthood is expand healthcare in itself. when all health caters are worse in the seven united states but one of the last places i got to cut the ribbon on was new planned parenthood health center in charleston, south carolina, where despite the government we just opened a brand-new health center that for the first time provides safe and legal abortion transgender care in charleston, south carolina. that to me is -- that's what we've got to do. [applause] that's what also encourages other people. i think we didn't touch on this but i will just say, seeing what people are doing even when they

say you can't, which is basically what we've been doing in texas, south carolina, louisiana. seeing the biggest women's march is ever in history of this country is what inspires other people to take action. one of his examples to me as seen women teachers across this country wildcat strike you on behalf of themselves and their pupils in a way that is revolution and distort. they are taking courage and what they're saying other women do. give it up for the teachers. it's amazing. [applause] i i mean, it's a tough time. i don't want to paint some beautiful picture, but i do think people are doing things that they never thought possible before, and that's what's going to keep us going. >> what a great note to end on here because that is exactly right. and, you know, cecile story in a

book and i got so many pages turned down i don't know i even bothered, but it is an inspirational story but it's also a motivational story. because there is something everybody can do, and i think after the standup speak out march and take action and try to prevent the really negative viewpoints that congress getting translated into legislation, until we can vote in november, and i think it's fair to say there would be no more important election because if this election will gets the kind of turnout that we usually don't get in midterms, and if we are able to take that take back one or both houses of congress we

will begin to hold accountable this administration and replace members of congress who lack empathy and really are going along because they are worried about their own political futures as opposed to the future of the country, we will begin to take back the country and begin to see the changes that we should. and one of the people who will help make that happen is our guest tonight and the author of a really good book that i hope you will all get a chance to read. so let's thank cecile richards for making trouble. [applause] >> let's hear it for them. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you. >> c-span, where history unfold daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable-television companies, and it today we continue to bring unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events in washington, d.c., and around the country. c-span's brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> here's a look at some authors recently featured on booktv's "after words," our weekly program that includes best-selling nonfiction books and guest interviewers here

in. >> why did you want to bring republicans in? >> i i always had this concept n this is that you should run at criticism. you should think about people who disagree with you and you should understand why they disagree with you. because maybe they are right about some things and maybe you have something to learn. if you just talk to people who agree with you, you are never going to really learn anything. i've been to a bunch of these kind of meetings with the

democratic party. you have, too. we bring up a bunch of strategies of basically just say the same things any of the democratic consultant on the talk to one of running for office will say. it's kind of like okay, we just spent a lot of time convincing ourselves we write about everything we believe. what i suggested is why do we bring in a republican pollster, why do we bring in a republican strategist? not having been we do it but we'll find some of your why do we bring in some of from a think tank. why do we listen to how they're thinking about the world, have your thinking about politics works maybe we learn something. >> "after words" airs every saturday at 10 p.m. eastern and sunday at 9 p.m. eastern and pacific. all previous travel programs are available to watch on our website, booktv.org. >> i have a theory about why the left is so hostile.

and it goes back to election day. think about all of your friends who are liberals, who about 8:00 on election evening were about to pop the champagne. hillary was going to break the glass ceiling. they're going to get a left-wing supreme court justice. there are going have policies on the left. you would have weakness overseas, they're going to raise taxes. life was good. and two hours later, some of you may have lived through this, may have seen it in whatever room you are in that night, two hours later there suddenly staring at each other, beginning to realize that not only is she not going to be president, but that means that donald j. trump is going to be president. and i believe what happened was a traumatic event comparable to a psychosis. that the intensity and speed of

the change was so great that most liberals today suffer from a political various of ptsd. and the part of trump's genius is that he tweets every morning. and some of people go to bed, they spent the night try not to think of a nightmare that is occurring, they wake up in the morning and they're about to begin a happy new day, they see a trump tweeted and they set the relies, oh, my god, he's still president. so they can't get over it. it's like watching groundhog day. they come back to it again and again and again. that's a big part of why you had this extraordinary level of anger. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.