I have a surprise new episode of Extra+Ordinary: The Fight for Reproductive Justice out today!
I learned last weekend that the “father of the abortion pill,” Etienne-Emile Baulieu, died at age 98. Reading his obituary, he reminded me a lot of Estelle Griswold—I wonder if they ever met? She smuggled refugees across borders during WWII, he joined the French Resistance. She had no problem asserting her belief in what was right, and neither did he. It seems they were both charming, outspoken, inventive, and courageous.
His legacy was cemented when RU-486 was released in the 1980s, and suddenly women could be “unpregnant,” as he called it, at home, by blocking progesterone and preventing the pregnancy from implanting and developing. No invasive medical procedures, no pushing past screaming protestors at a clinic.
In my episode about Plan B, we talked about the whole timeline of hormone-based medicine, from oral contraceptives to emergency contraception to abortion pills, and how the developments in France affected what was happening in the US—and the world.
So in this 10-minute episode, we revisit that story, and admire some of the fascinating details of Etienne-Emile’s life.
For fun further reading, check out his obituary and a profile of him written just two years ago, when he was 96—and still working.
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