As women’s rights are increasingly depleted in the US, journalist Rebecca Kelliher dives into the radical history of the abortion pills from invention to distribution to today
Spanning decades and continents with a tenacious cast of doctors, activists, politicians, drug suppliers, and everyday women, Just Pills tells the gripping, little-known history of mifepristone and misoprostol, better known as the abortion pills.
The abortion pills are a safe, cheap, clinic-less means of ending a pregnancy, and these drugs have been quietly—yet steadily—spreading around the world. These pills are already changing the fight for abortion access as we understand it. Rebecca Kelliher dives into the history of the pills’ invention in the 1970s and 80s, unpacks government battles around their approval in the 1990s, and deftly weaves together several perspectives to move beyond the pills’ origin story.
As women’s rights are increasingly infringed upon in the US, this history of radical invention and persistent distribution of a life-saving drug will remind us of the work we’ve already done and inspire us to continue to pursue a world where women are free.
“An important and clarifying look at two crucial medications in the wake of the US Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, endangering reproductive rights and women’s health.”
—Booklist
“Just Pills is essential reading for anyone who cares about the attacks on our bodies and freedoms. An exacting history of abortion medication doesn’t just give us the information and context we need to fight back but also reminds readers that the courage behind this struggle is nothing new.”
—Jessica Valenti
“Just Pills is a revelatory work of cultural history, deeply researched and gracefully written. With the battle raging over women’s rights to control their own bodies, this important story could not come at a better time.”
—Jonathan Eig, author of The Birth of the Pill and winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“Just Pills is an incredible and meticulous account of abortion pills around the world and in the United States. Rebecca Kelliher’s research and journalism shine bright as she details the long history of abortion pills and tells the stories of the women who made it possible along the way.”
—Renee Bracey Sherman, author of Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve
“This beautifully written, meticulously researched book tells readers all they need to know about the crucial role abortion pills have come to occupy in today’s abortion landscape, both in the United States and globally . . . Just Pills is medical journalism at its best.”
—Carole Joffe, author of After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion
“In this fascinating and well-written account, Rebecca Kelliher tells a global story of abortion pills up to the present day. It is a story that is as relevant today as it was half a century ago, as women are again fighting for the right to control their own bodies.”
—Elaine Tyler May, author of America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation
“At a time when reproductive rights are under severe threat in many parts of the world, Just Pills—through masterful storytelling and impressive research—is both a timely and astute reminder of the hurdles so many individuals have overcome to safeguard these collective rights and a fiery appeal for none of us to give up hope, however bleak things might seem.”
—Josie Cox, author of Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality
CHAPTER 1
The Pill That Makes Your Period Come Back
CHAPTER 2
A Parenthetical
CHAPTER 3
The Dawn of RU-486
CHAPTER 4
The Moral Property of Women
CHAPTER 5
“Obscene, Lewd, or Lascivious”
CHAPTER 6
The Belly of the Beast
CHAPTER 7
“The Pill That Changes Everything”
CHAPTER 8
A Fantasy
CHAPTER 9
“The Most Normal Thing to Do”
CHAPTER 10
Loopholes
CHAPTER 11
Questioning Everything, Completely
CHAPTER 12
Unapologetic Love
CHAPTER 13
“Really, Really, Really This Makes No Sense”
CHAPTER 14
“We Are Going to Lose Our Right to Abortion Access Tomorrow”
CHAPTER 15
“This Lawsuit Is Frivolous”
CHAPTER 16
“I Felt Like I Was Abandoned”
CHAPTER 17
Know the Right People
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index