The man considered the father of the pill for abortion died. The life story of the Jew “overwhelmed by the most atrocious insults and compared to the Nazi scientists”

The doctor and the French scientist Etienne-Emile Baulieu, considered the father of the pill for abortion, died at the age of 98, in his home in Paris, on Friday, according to his wife for AFP, reports Le Monde. In 2023, when he decorated, the President of France said about the researcher born of Jewish parents that he was “overwhelmed by the most atrocious insults and compared to the Nazi scientists”, but he “resisted, for the sake of freedom and science.”

“His research was guided by his commitment to the progress made possible by science, his dedication to the freedom of women and his desire to allow everyone to live better and longer lives,” said Baulieu's wife, Simone Harari Baulieu.

Remaining a widow after the death of Yolande Comapgnon, Baulieu married Simone Harari in 2016. He leaves after three children, eight grandchildren and nine great -grandchildren, according to the family release.

Etienne Blum, on his birth name, was born of Jewish parents, in Strasbourg, on December 12, 1926, and was raised by a feminist mother after the death of his father, a professional doctor. He changed his name to “Emile Baulieu” when he joined the French resistance to fight the Nazi occupation at the age of 15, and later added “Etenne” in the name.

After the war, self-titled “Doctor who does science” was self-titled, specializing in the field of steroid hormones. Invited to work in the US, he was noted in 1961 by Gregory Pincus, known as the contraceptive pill, who convinced to focus on sexual hormones.

When he returned to France, Baulieu conceived a way to block the effect of the progesterone hormone, essential for implanting the egg in the uterus after fertilization.

It was his best-known scientific discovery, and she helped to develop the RU-486 oral drug, also known as a mifepriston, which offered a safe and cheap alternative to surgical abortion for millions of women around the world.

Was decorated by the President of France in 2023

For decades, Etienne-Emile Baulieu has pressed governments to authorize the drug, facing fierce critics and sometimes threats from those who oppose abortion.

Drailed before the courts and demonized by the US anti-abortion groups who accused him of invented a “pill of death”, Baulieu refused to give back.

“You, a Jew and a resistance fighter, were overwhelmed by the most atrocious insults and even compared to the Nazi scientists,” Emmanuel Macron told Baulieu in 2023, while the French president handed him the highest distinction of France.

“But you have resisted, for the sake of freedom and science,” added President Macron at that time.

Also in 2023, when Wyoming became the first US state to remove the law for abortion, Baulieu told AFP that the decision is “scandalous”.

At that time 96 years old, Baulieu said he has dedicated much of his life to “growing freedom of women”, and such prohibitions are a step in the wrong direction. The French Minister of Equality, Aurore Berge, sent a message of condolences to Baileu's family, saying X that the scientist was “guided throughout his life by one requirement: human dignity.”