by Rebecca Kelliher
Beacon Press
9/30/2025, hardcover
SKU: 9780807012703
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.
Reviews:
"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
"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
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
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.