French scientist Étienne-émile Baulieu, the inventor of abortion pills, died at the age of 98.

The doctor and researcher have made a famous life worldwide for their work leading to pills, and his life is filled with life, including fighting in the French Resistance and becoming friends with artists such as Andy Warhol.

"His research is guided by his commitment to the advances made in science, his dedication to women's freedom and his commitment to the progress he hopes to make everyone live better and longer lives," Baulieu's wife Simone Harari Baulieu said on Friday.

Baulieu's most famous discovery helped create the oral drug RU-486, also known as Mifepristone, which provides millions of women around the world with a safe and inexpensive alternative to surgical replacement.

For decades, he urged the government to authorize the drug, facing fierce criticism and sometimes threatened by abortion opponents.

When Wyoming became the first U.S. country to ban abortion drugs in 2023, Boliu told AFP that it was a "scandal."

Baulieu, then 96, said he devoted his life to "increasing women's freedom" and that ban was a step in the wrong direction.

Following the news of his death, French Equality Minister Aurore Bergé expressed condolences to Baulieu's family and said on X that he "has been guided for a lifetime: the dignity of mankind."

Born on December 12, 1926 in Strasbourg Jewish parents, étienne Blum, his father (doctor) died after he was raised by his feminist mother.

When he joined France to resist Nazi occupation at the age of 15, he changed his name to Émile Baulieu and then joined Étienne.

After the war, he became a self-proclaimed "Doctor of Science" specializing in the field of steroid hormones.

Baulieu, who was invited to work in the United States, was noticed by Gregory Pincus, the father known as the birth control pill, who convinced him to focus on sex hormones.

Back in France, Baulieu devised a method to stop the action of the hormone progesterone, which is essential for implanting the uterus after fertilizing the egg. This led to the development of mifescin in 1982.

Baulieu was accused of demonizing the American anti-abortion group that he invented the "die medicine" and was demonized by the American anti-abortion group.

"Adversity slipped off him like water," Simone Harari Baulieu told AFP.

French President Emmanuel Macron said, in showing France's highest honor to France, "You, the Jews and a Resistance Fighter, are overwhelmed by the cruelest insults compared to the Nazi scientists, even compared to the Nazi scientists."

In the 1960s, literary fan Baulieu became friends with artists such as Andy Warhol.

He said he was "fascinated by artists who claim to be able to reach human souls, which will always be within the scope of scientists."

Baulieu kept entering his Paris office in the mid-90s. "If I don't work anymore, I'll be bored," he said in 2023.

His recent research includes trying to find a way to prevent the development of Alzheimer's disease and treatments for severe depression, and clinical trials are underway around the world.

"There is no reason we can't find two diseases," he said.

Baulieu is also the first person to describe how the adrenal hormone DHEA was secreted in 1963.

He firmly believes in the anti-aging ability of hormones, but the medications used have only limited effects, such as in bright skin creams.

In the United States, Baulieu also won the prestigious Lasker Award in 1989.

Baulieu married Simone Harari in 2016 after the death of his first wife, Yolande Compagnon.

According to a statement issued by his family, he left behind three children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.