“Scandalous,” “a setback for women’s freedom”: Étienne-Émile Baulieu, the French inventor of the abortion pill, regrets a recent ban by an American state and, at 96, continues to seek treatments for depression and Alzheimer’s.
Last Friday, Wyoming became the first US state to ban the abortion pill, another victory for conservatives who want to restrict access to abortion in the US.
“It is a setback for women’s freedom, especially for those most in need, who will not have the means to go to another state to obtain it.” Etienne-Emile Baulieu doesn’t mince his words, he dedicated a good part of his life to exactly the opposite: “to increase women’s freedom”.
Son of a nephrologist who died when he was only 3 years old, raised by his feminist mother, he was resistant by 15. This “doctor of science,” as he likes to call himself, specializes in steroid hormone research.
Invited to work in the United States, he was noticed in 1961 by Gregory Pincus, the father of the birth control pill, who convinced him to work on sex hormones.
Photo Pierre GUILLAUD / AFP
Etienne Emile Baulieu, 1988
Back in France, he developed an antihormone that counteracts the effects of progesterone, which is essential for the implantation of the egg in the uterus. “I wanted to make it a +contragestive+,” he explains to AFP, a means of counteracting pregnancy.
Developed in 1982 in collaboration with the Roussel-Uclaf laboratory, the RU-846 molecule is a safe and inexpensive medical alternative to surgical termination of pregnancy.
But the battle for marketing is becoming tough, and the powerful American anti-abortion leagues accuse her of having invented a “death pill”.
“You, Jew and resistance fighter, were showered with the most cruel insults and compared to Nazi scholars (…) But you persevered, out of love for freedom and science,” President Emmanuel Macron recalled in early March, awarding him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor presented.
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“Fanaticism and Ignorance”
“Adversity glides over him like water over a duck’s feathers, he’s extremely solid,” says producer Simone Harari Baulieu, who has shared his life for more than 30 years.
In his opinion, this “return” decided in the United States betrays “fanaticism and ignorance”.
In his office in Inserm Unit 1195 of the Kremlin-Bicêtre University Hospital, which he continues to occupy three times a week and which is stacked with photos, diplomas, folders with “the work of his life” or sculptures offered by his friend Niki de Saint- Phalle said he still wanted to “be useful.”
Wearing his most recent award discreetly on his blue suit, he claims he “never seriously hoped for such honors”: “It made me happy, but what interests me is improving people’s health”.
In his laboratory, his teams are continuing the research he started years ago to prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease, but also to treat severe depression: a clinical study on humans will be running in around ten university hospitals and at the AP by the summer. HP (Hospitals of Paris).
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“There’s no reason we can’t find treatments,” says this great optimist. “It feels good to do this job,” he adds, listing his battle horses: “Women, brain health, longevity.”
“He is always enthusiastic and a driving force for us; When he comes, we’ll discuss our progress,” says Julien Giustiniani, team leader at the Baulieu Institute, which was set up to fund research into senile dementia.
When he has to use a cane to walk, Etienne-Emile Baulieu seems tireless.
This user of DHEA, a natural hormone he believes can delay aging and whose secretion by the adrenal glands he described in 1963, still attends shows regularly and admits with a laugh, being “stimulated by difficult issues.” become.
“If I stopped working, I think I’d be bored,” he breathes.