Etienne-Emile Baulieu, inventor of the abortion pill, died on May 30 at the age of 98, his wife, producer Simone Harari Baulieu, told Agence France-Presse. "He stayed on his feet until the very end, he was still working yesterday and, in reality, he never really stopped working, he was always thinking about how to heal people," she said.

A physician, biologist and engaged researcher, "his research was guided by his attachment to the progress made possible by science, his commitment to women's freedom and his desire to help everyone live better and longer," she also stated in a press release. "He was, above all, a scholar, with all the imagination and creativity that implies."

In their apartment, a painting bears the inscription: "Imagination is more important than knowledge," a maxim that guided him. "The joy of healing was quickly supplanted by the thirst to invent what would allow for even better healing. Because searching, exploring, discovering and advancing knowledge became an obsession, I would even say my oxygen," Baulieu told Le Monde in 2022.

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