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Sep 30, 2025
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Description
As women's rights are increasingly under attack, journalist Rebecca Kelliher dives into the gripping history of abortion pills, weaving together the many people who, across decades and continents, have sought to ensure access to these medications
Spanning more than a century and several continents, with a tenacious cast of feminist activists, scientists, politicians, doctors, and abortion seekers, Just Pills tells the fascinating history of mifepristone and misoprostol, better known as abortion pills.
Millions of women around the world for more than two decades have been using one or both of these medications to safely end their own pregnancies, within or outside the law. These pills continue to hold a promise of expanding abortion access for all. Rebecca Kelliher dives into their invention, their legalization battles, and the ongoing proliferation of care models under bans, deftly introducing people who strive for better.
As women’s rights to control their own bodies are increasingly undermined in the US, this little-known history of the many people behind these life-saving medications will educate, enrage, and inspire.
Spanning more than a century and several continents, with a tenacious cast of feminist activists, scientists, politicians, doctors, and abortion seekers, Just Pills tells the fascinating history of mifepristone and misoprostol, better known as abortion pills.
Millions of women around the world for more than two decades have been using one or both of these medications to safely end their own pregnancies, within or outside the law. These pills continue to hold a promise of expanding abortion access for all. Rebecca Kelliher dives into their invention, their legalization battles, and the ongoing proliferation of care models under bans, deftly introducing people who strive for better.
As women’s rights to control their own bodies are increasingly undermined in the US, this little-known history of the many people behind these life-saving medications will educate, enrage, and inspire.
Product Details
| Publisher | Beacon Press |
| Publish Date | September 30, 2025 |
| Pages | 280 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9780807012703 |
| Dimensions | 9.0 X 6.0 X 0.0 inches | 1.3 pounds |
About the Author
Rebecca Kelliher is a journalist and Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Post-Graduate Fellow. She is a staff writer at Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, where she covers national public policy on higher education inequities. She was educated at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and Barnard College, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Before journalism, she worked at universities in the United States and United Arab Emirates as a writer and teacher. She lives in New York City with her partner and their cat.
Reviews
“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. Just Pills is an impressive record of how abortion pills came to be, how they are impacting abortion pills now, and what’s possible for the future.”
—Renee Bracey Sherman, author of Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve
“Just Pills tells the little-known story of the development and use of abortion medications, beginning long before the US Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. 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. This book could not be more timely and important.”
—Elaine Tyler May, author of America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation
“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
“The history of abortion pills is a fascinating—sometimes hopeful, often terrifying—tale of unlikely scientific breakthroughs and fierce societal backlash. But as Kelliher brilliantly teaches us in Just Pills, it’s about so much more than that too. It’s about the fight against systemic abuses of privilege; it’s about entrenched inequality; it’s about deep-rooted misogyny and medical paternalism; and it’s about coercion and control. Perhaps above all else, though, it’s also about bravery, resolve, and the power of community. 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
“Just Pills is essential reading for anyone who cares about the attacks on our bodies and freedoms. Rebecca Kelliher’s 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, author of Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win
"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. Drawing on interviews with nearly two hundred individuals, Rebecca Kelliher takes the reader through the fascinating and extremely complex history of the development and approval of mifepristone, one of the drugs used in the medication abortion regimen. She also tells the story of the dramatic increase in the use of the ulcer drug misoprostol for abortions, either in combination with mifepristone or used alone. In each instance, these ostensibly medical events were inextricably bound up with abortion politics, and the author details the painstaking efforts of advocates over many years to push these advances forward. Just Pills is medical journalism at its best."
—Carole Joffe, author of After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion
—Renee Bracey Sherman, author of Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve
“Just Pills tells the little-known story of the development and use of abortion medications, beginning long before the US Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. 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. This book could not be more timely and important.”
—Elaine Tyler May, author of America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation
“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
“The history of abortion pills is a fascinating—sometimes hopeful, often terrifying—tale of unlikely scientific breakthroughs and fierce societal backlash. But as Kelliher brilliantly teaches us in Just Pills, it’s about so much more than that too. It’s about the fight against systemic abuses of privilege; it’s about entrenched inequality; it’s about deep-rooted misogyny and medical paternalism; and it’s about coercion and control. Perhaps above all else, though, it’s also about bravery, resolve, and the power of community. 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
“Just Pills is essential reading for anyone who cares about the attacks on our bodies and freedoms. Rebecca Kelliher’s 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, author of Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win
"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. Drawing on interviews with nearly two hundred individuals, Rebecca Kelliher takes the reader through the fascinating and extremely complex history of the development and approval of mifepristone, one of the drugs used in the medication abortion regimen. She also tells the story of the dramatic increase in the use of the ulcer drug misoprostol for abortions, either in combination with mifepristone or used alone. In each instance, these ostensibly medical events were inextricably bound up with abortion politics, and the author details the painstaking efforts of advocates over many years to push these advances forward. Just Pills is medical journalism at its best."
—Carole Joffe, author of After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion
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