The father of the abortion pill
When the idea came to him nearly 50 years ago, Dr. Étienne-Émile Baulieu believed it could be revolutionary. Creating a pill that could abort a pregnancy would transform reproductive health care, he believed, allowing women to avoid surgery, act sooner, and make decisions privately.
"When science meets the cause of women, it's irresistible," said Dr. Baulieu, 96, a French endocrinologist and biochemist often called the father of the abortion pill, on a Sunday after midday in his apartment in a century-old building a few steps from the Eiffel Tower.
He had also hoped, as he wrote in a 1990 book, that in the 21st century, "paradoxically, the 'abortion pill' might even help eliminate abortion as a problem. »
That prospect seems further away than ever, especially in the United States. Not only has abortion remained highly controversial since the pill pioneered by Dr. Baulieu, mifepristone, was approved in America in 2000, but last year's Supreme Court ruling ending the federal right to abortion has divided the country on the issue like never before.
Yet over time some of Dr. Baulieu's other expectations have come to fruition. Today, medical abortion, in which mifepristone and a second medication are taken early in pregnancy, is used in more than half of pregnancy terminations in the United States. This proportion is expected to increase, even in states that have banned abortion, where growing use has placed the pill at the center of legal and political battles.
For the Dr. Baulieu, who continues to work in his lab on the southern outskirts of Paris, his office overlooking a former asylum where the Marquis de Sade was held, the volatile developments are just the latest twists in a turbulent life. As a teenager, he transported firearms in the French Resistance during World War II, changing his name and taking refuge in the high Alps. He joined the Communist Party then left it in 1956 after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. And he socialized with artists Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns in the 1960s, beginning a series of friendships with painters, sculptors, musicians and actors who he says helped inspire his scientific work. p>
When the idea came to him nearly 50 years ago, Dr. Étienne-Émile Baulieu believed it could be revolutionary. Creating a pill that could abort a pregnancy would transform reproductive health care, he believed, allowing women to avoid surgery, act sooner, and make decisions privately.
"When science meets the cause of women, it's irresistible," said Dr. Baulieu, 96, a French endocrinologist and biochemist often called the father of the abortion pill, on a Sunday after midday in his apartment in a century-old building a few steps from the Eiffel Tower.
He had also hoped, as he wrote in a 1990 book, that in the 21st century, "paradoxically, the 'abortion pill' might even help eliminate abortion as a problem. »
That prospect seems further away than ever, especially in the United States. Not only has abortion remained highly controversial since the pill pioneered by Dr. Baulieu, mifepristone, was approved in America in 2000, but last year's Supreme Court ruling ending the federal right to abortion has divided the country on the issue like never before.
Yet over time some of Dr. Baulieu's other expectations have come to fruition. Today, medical abortion, in which mifepristone and a second medication are taken early in pregnancy, is used in more than half of pregnancy terminations in the United States. This proportion is expected to increase, even in states that have banned abortion, where growing use has placed the pill at the center of legal and political battles.
For the Dr. Baulieu, who continues to work in his lab on the southern outskirts of Paris, his office overlooking a former asylum where the Marquis de Sade was held, the volatile developments are just the latest twists in a turbulent life. As a teenager, he transported firearms in the French Resistance during World War II, changing his name and taking refuge in the high Alps. He joined the Communist Party then left it in 1956 after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. And he socialized with artists Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns in the 1960s, beginning a series of friendships with painters, sculptors, musicians and actors who he says helped inspire his scientific work. p>
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