Professor Etien-Emil Bolie, inventor of the abortion pill, who always defended his progress made by science, died today at the age of 98, his wife told the French Agency.

Both as a doctor and as a researcher, Bolie was worldwide known for his scientific, medical and social impact of his work on the role of steroid hormones.

“His research was guided by his commitment to the progress that was made possible by science, his commitment to women’s freedom and his desire to allow everyone to live better and longer,” said his wife, Simon Arary Bolier.

“Etienne-Emil Bolie has been guided throughout his life from a check: that of human dignity,” the minister responsible for discrimination and equality between women and men, Oror Berze, responded to X.

Born on December 12, 1926 in Strasbourg, Etienne Bloom was named Emil Bolie when he joined the resistance at the age of just 15.

Doctor of Medicine (1955) and Doctor of Natural Sciences (1963), endocrinologist, founded the research unit 33 at Inserm in 1963 with the research of hormones. He headed the unit until 1997 and remained in it until the end.

He became well known for the development of RU 486 in 1982. This abortion pill, also known as the next day’s pill, revolutionized the lives of millions of women around the world, offering them the choice of voluntary interruption of pregnancy with medicines.

Bolie has been strongly criticized, even threats by warrior women of women to control their childbirth.

Two years ago, he regretted the ban on a pill in a US state, speaking to the French Agency, which met him in his workshop, referring to a “regression to women’s freedom”. A “regression” that, according to him, showed “fanaticism and ignorance”.

His research on DHEA, whose hormone was discovered by the secretion and action against aging, also led him to deal with neurosteroids (steroids of the nervous system).

He also developed a treatment for depression, for which a clinical trial is underway in many university hospitals.

In his office at Inserm (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) at Kremlin-Bicêtre University Hospital, where he continued to go three times a week, and where stacked photos, diplomas, folders containing “work of a lifetime” and sculptures that his friend had given him. In 2008, he founded the Baulieu Institute for understanding, prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. His research targeted the Tau protein along with another protein, the FKBP52, which he had discovered and which is naturally present in the body.

“There is no reason for we cannot find treatments,” this great visionary told the French agency. “It’s nice to find something when you are in this industry,” he said, listing his passions: “Women, brain health, longevity.”

He had been honored with many awards and awards in France such as the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. In the US, he was honored with the Lasker Award, America’s highest scientific distinction.

He was married to a second marriage to Simon Arary Bolie, after being left widowed by Yoland Companion. Etienne-Emil Bolie left behind three children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.