New Planned Parenthood leader says real issue is fairness, health equity

"We know the consequences of bad policy," she said. "Iowans are already living in them. … Thousands who once received reproductive health care are going without — and that includes contraceptives. Unintended pregnancies have increased. Infant deaths have soared in recent years. And Iowa mothers are more likely to die today than 30 years ago."

Last summer, when Iowa passed a restrictive abortion law in a one-day special session, a thousand people filled this rotunda in protest. The ban has been stuck in court ever since. This crowd was much smaller, about 120.

Richardson plied them with her story: How her life dedicated to helping families affected by fetal alcohol syndrome and women battling addiction led her here.

"My great-grandmother was a Black midwife in Mississippi," she said. "I learned early on, from the stories of my mom, of my aunt, grandmother, my great-grandmother — I learned that health care is not the same for everyone. I didn't know words like social determinants of health, or health equity. But I knew what I was hearing wasn't just.

"I also learned it didn't have to be that way."

Talk with friends, family or colleagues, and one thing always comes up: Richardson is a quiet person.

Said Luz María Frías, whom Richardson worked for at St. Paul's Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity department: "When she announced she was running for office, I was blown away. She was the last person on earth! An introvert, doesn't like attention. But she's got this gift at being able to persuade folks in a stealth fashion."

Rep. Cedrick Frazier, a law school classmate, said people look for calm amid chaos: "That's Ruth. All the time."

Richardson's story began in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood, the sixth of eight kids in a family scraping to get by. Faith bound them. Richardson was raised Jehovah's Witness, knocking on strangers' doors and reciting Bible verses as a kindergartener. Their house was full: kids from her mother's day care, dozens of foster children they took in as the crack epidemic ravaged the Black community.

Her dad drove trucks, taxis and buses. Richardson remembers riding her dad's bus and him pointing out William Mitchell College of Law. She was a proud nerd, a high school kid who scoured used bookstores for books on Black history. Her first job was guiding tours at the Minnesota Capitol. She became the first in her family to attend college, then went to law school at William Mitchell while raising toddler children. She became involved in battling homelessness and fetal alcohol syndrome.

...continued

swipe to next page