‘Hands That Shed Innocent Blood’: The Abortion Pill Inventor’s Deadly And Corrupt Legacy

July 5, 2025

By Ken Ham

Reprinted from Harbinger’s Daily

Proverbs 6:16–17 states that “the Lord hates . . . hands that shed innocent blood.”

A French scientist, Étienne-Émile Baulieu, who recently died at the age of 98, is being hailed in headlines around the world as “a beacon of courage” and a world-changer, a hero for women’s rights. But his legacy isn’t one that uplifts women—it’s a legacy of bloodshed and brokenness. A legacy of death.

According to the BBC, this man was the inventor of RU-486, commonly known as mifepristone, an oral drug they say “has provided millions of women across the world with a safe and inexpensive alternative to a surgical abortion.” Now let’s fact-check the BBC right there. I recently wrote about a new study—the largest of its kind—that found the abortion pill is not safe: “The [mifepristone] label reports that less than 0.5% of women ‘experienced serious adverse effects’ (again, they aren’t including the baby’s death as an adverse effect). But this new robust, real-world study found it’s actually 10.93% of women! To put that into perspective, that’s 1 in 10 women who take mifepristone that suffer an adverse health effect!“

And yet the BBC doesn’t report that ground-breaking research. Instead they trot out the tired, old argument that the abortion pill is as safe as over-the-counter pain relievers. That’s simply not true—it’s obviously not true for the baby who ends up dead nor for the mother who has a 1 in 10 chance of suffering a severe adverse health effect!

Baulieu’s widow said of him, “His research was guided by his commitment to progress through science, his dedication to women’s freedom and his desire to enable everyone to live better and longer lives,” and the French gender equality minister said Baulieu “was guided throughout his life by one requirement: that of human dignity.”

Really? Baulieu wanted “everyone” to live a better and longer life? He was guided by “human dignity”? He certainly didn’t apply that “commitment” to life or the “requirement” to be guided by human dignity to the millions of babies who were directly killed by the pill he invented and then fought to have legalized in countries around the world.

No, Baulieu was guided by a hatred of unborn life and the belief that women find freedom by killing their own children. What an evil worldview! A worldview that destroys the most vulnerable in the name of “freedom.”

Yes, the French president was right when he said that “few French people have changed the world to such an extent” as Baulieu did. He changed the world. . . . for the worse. He made the world a much more dangerous place—a deadly place—for unborn children and their mothers.

The Bible has a lot to say about such evil men: “Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him” (Isaiah 3:11).

Ken Ham is an author, speaker, and Founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis and its two popular interests: the acclaimed Creation Museum and the internationally known Ark Encounter.