0:00

Hey everyone, this is TJ Raphael,

0:02

the host of Biohacked Family Secrets.

0:06

I'm back to share something really special,

0:08

the first episode of my new show,

0:11

Cover Up the Pill Plot.

0:13

If you like Biohacked, I really think

0:15

you'll like the Pill Plot too,

0:17

because it's all about reproductive

0:19

health and justice. But in this

0:22

story, I uncover a wild

0:24

international drug smuggling scheme.

0:27

A scheme that's set up to lift an

0:29

American ban on the abortion pill. The

0:32

people I've talked to for this series

0:34

have battled presidents, the Supreme

0:36

Court, militant anti-abortionists,

0:39

former Nazis, and would-be

0:42

assassins and murderers.

0:44

It's truly a wild story,

0:47

and I really hope you love it. Here's

0:49

episode one of Cover Up the

0:51

Pill Plot.

1:01

I live in New York, and outside

1:03

of Times Square, John F.

1:05

Kennedy International Airport is

1:08

the most chaotic

1:10

place in the city. Every

1:12

time I go there, it's a zoo. Tens

1:16

of millions of passengers go through

1:18

that airport every year. And

1:21

every person, bag, and dog

1:23

carrier on any flight has to go

1:25

through some kind of screening. And

1:28

for the most part, it is pretty

1:30

routine.

1:32

But every now and then, there's

1:34

that one person, that

1:37

one bag that breaks up the

1:39

monotony and makes headlines.

1:41

About 28

1:44

pounds of cocaine were seized at

1:46

JFK Airport after being

1:48

found in the... Like the woman who tried to smuggle

1:50

cocaine in the wheels of her

1:52

wheelchair. Or the

1:55

guy who was caught with 35 songbirds

1:58

hidden inside hair curlers.

1:59

Or this one. Let's

2:02

take a look at this. A sticky situation at Kennedy

2:04

Airport. A guy had packed two jars

2:06

of peanut butter in his suitcase, and

2:09

they were filled with parts from a disassembled

2:12

semi-automatic handgun. But

2:14

last summer, I heard this story that I

2:17

think beats them all.

2:19

Because what these folks brought into JFK

2:22

three decades ago is still

2:25

making headlines today. Like,

2:27

actually today. And

2:29

that story starts here. On

2:33

British Airways Flight 173 on July 1, 1992. There's

2:40

these two people traveling together. There's

2:43

a woman, Leona. She's

2:45

in her late 20s. She's a punk,

2:47

a little scruffy. And then there's

2:49

this much older man, Larry.

2:52

He could be her grandfather.

2:54

He's 72, super fancy. In a suit

2:56

that you don't buy off the rack. They're

3:00

the kind of couple that makes you look twice.

3:03

What are those two up to exactly? And

3:09

you can tell they're up to something because

3:11

he keeps going over and over

3:13

some kind of plan with her. At

3:16

some point, Leona, the punk,

3:19

she gets up to use the toilet. When

3:22

she comes out, she looks different. She's

3:24

not wearing her jeans anymore. She's

3:27

wearing a black pencil skirt. And

3:30

then just before they touch down, Larry

3:33

hands Leona an envelope. And

3:36

when the plane lands, they

3:38

stay put. They

3:41

want to be the last ones off the flight.

3:44

Because they have an entrance to make.

3:47

Whatever Larry was muttering about on

3:49

the plane, it's about to go down.

3:55

They make it to customs and they hand their passports to

3:57

the agent. The envelope is broken. burning

4:00

a hole in Leona's pocket, but

4:02

she tries to stay cool, which

4:04

gets harder when she sees their names

4:06

written in all caps on a piece

4:09

of paper on the agent's desk. And

4:11

a single word, female. The

4:14

Feds are onto them.

4:16

Customs have been alerted that there

4:19

was somebody coming in with an illegal drug.

4:22

Federal agents separate them. They

4:25

take Larry into one room and start sifting

4:27

through his luggage. They're searching

4:30

him as a common

4:31

crook, you know what I mean? And they

4:33

take Leona into a separate room.

4:36

And she hands over what they've

4:38

been looking for, the envelope.

4:41

It has pills in it, and they're

4:44

illegal in the U.S. The

4:46

agents seize the drugs. But

4:49

then they let

4:51

Larry and Leona go. There's

4:53

no arrest. So they

4:56

head for the exit. And all hell

4:58

broke loose. A mob

5:00

of reporters are waiting outside for them.

5:03

And they looked through my luggage, and then they took me into

5:05

the back room, and they patted me down. But Larry,

5:07

the older guy in the suit, yeah,

5:09

he isn't surprised, because

5:11

this is all going exactly as

5:14

he planned.

5:15

You see, Larry was the

5:17

one who tipped off the Feds.

5:19

I was worried, because Larry, you never know, he'd

5:21

give you surprises here or there. Why

5:24

such a big dust-up over a small

5:26

amount of drugs? What's inside

5:29

the envelope isn't heroin or

5:31

cocaine. This wasn't

5:33

part of the war on drugs. But

5:37

it was from another seemingly

5:39

endless American war that

5:42

pill authorities had seized.

5:44

It was R.U. 486,

5:47

also known as Mifepristone, the

5:49

abortion pill.

5:51

What do we want? When do we want it? Yeah!

5:55

This group of anti-Christian

5:57

components, Christian babies! Ho

6:00

ho! The abortion tale

6:02

is not to go! RU-486

6:09

was the medication that was supposed to

6:11

provide an escape from the chaos

6:14

of the American

6:14

abortion wars. It's a drug

6:17

that offers a simpler, easier,

6:19

and more private way for people to end

6:22

their pregnancies, far away

6:24

from the shouting protesters that haunted

6:26

clinics in the 1990s.

6:28

More than 100 anti-abortion

6:30

protesters were arrested for blocking an

6:32

entrance way. Since the overturning

6:34

of Roe v. Wade, the pill has

6:36

taken center stage. But

6:39

how we got this medication is a

6:42

decade-long saga, packed

6:44

with an unlikely cast of collaborators,

6:46

who are all pushing towards one goal, to

6:49

bring the abortion pill to America.

6:53

It's a story that has mostly been forgotten

6:55

to history. Until now.

7:01

From Sony Music Entertainment, this

7:04

is Cover Up the Pill Plot. I'm your

7:06

host, T.J. Raphael. On

7:08

this season, I'll take you on the wild

7:11

ride to get the pill into American

7:13

hands, whatever it took. Battling

7:16

presidents, the Supreme Court, former

7:19

Nazis, anarchists, punks, and

7:21

would-be assassins and

7:23

murderers. It's 100 degrees.

7:25

You are not going to get away with this. Keep

7:28

the abortion clinic closed. Keep it closed.

7:30

On today's show, Chapter One, light

7:33

a fuse. Stay with us.

7:46

I am always... Everything that was presented

7:48

to me, I just swallowed completely

7:51

whole. We are one of the richest families

7:53

in the world that could never

7:55

change. We're Steinbergs. Like, we

7:57

are Steinbergs. We're made of money.

7:59

The family was drawn together

8:02

by the money. I was so aware this

8:04

could come to a screeching halt. Do you think

8:07

I would have stopped? And then all of a

8:09

sudden, the volcano erupts. I'm

8:12

Arielle Levy, and this is the Just

8:14

Enough Family. Binge all episodes

8:17

now on Apple Podcasts.

8:22

My family name is Lindsay Cum,

8:25

but I didn't want to have a last name of Cum because there

8:27

was too many jokes. So I changed

8:29

the E to a Y. So I became Lindsay Comey.

8:31

So my mom, when people would say, why

8:34

did she change her name? She

8:36

would say, oh, she's political. It keeps

8:38

her name out of the papers. That's

8:41

how I found you. And I was in a lot

8:43

of papers, I think. Last winter, I

8:45

flew out to California to meet up with Lindsay

8:47

Comey.

8:48

Without her, that scene at JFK,

8:50

well, it probably would have never happened.

8:53

So we became outside agitators. Lindsay

8:56

worked in reproductive

8:58

health in the Bay Area for over four decades. She's

9:00

helped a lot of people get birth control,

9:03

STD tests, health screenings, and abortions. When

9:08

I meet up with Lindsay in Oakland, her silver

9:10

hair is cut short, her eyebrows dyed

9:12

electric blue, and

9:14

she's wearing what appears to be a vintage

9:16

leather jacket. So I was kind of known as

9:18

a radical punk a bit.

9:20

Lindsay might be a radical,

9:24

but she started out pretty deep in the establishment. 11 days

9:27

after I turned 18, I signed

9:29

the papers and was off to the Navy. I

9:31

never wanted to be a foot soldier. So

9:34

for me, my choice was Navy or

9:36

Air Force. Honestly, I didn't

9:38

like the Air Force uniform. Honestly.

9:41

Lindsay joins up and is shipped off

9:43

to serve as a combat medic in the

9:46

Vietnam War. I was in the Navy, and I was

9:48

in the Navy. I was in the Navy in the Vietnam

9:50

War. I was a feminist. I really

9:53

thought having women go into the service,

9:55

that you would change the nature to

9:58

be egalitarian.

9:59

War is never egalitarian.

10:02

In 1978, Lindsay returns to the US. She's

10:06

in her mid-20s.

10:07

I think as a veteran, it was really important

10:09

for me to have work that I thought was honorable.

10:12

In 1973, Roe v. Wade becomes the law of the land.

10:16

So when Lindsay is looking around

10:18

after her time in the service, she thinks

10:21

a gig in this brand new and expanding

10:23

field of reproductive health care might be the best

10:25

option for her.

10:27

What can I do that is the opposite

10:29

of this war culture? And Lindsay

10:32

finds what she's looking for at Women's

10:34

Choice Clinic in Oakland. The

10:36

clinic actually opened in a little

10:39

house off an alley. And the women

10:41

actually lived in the house and provided services

10:43

and information. It was just an itty-bitty little

10:46

house that they did all this stuff out of. Women's

10:48

Choice actually set up shop the year before

10:51

Roe v. Wade. And afterwards, they're

10:53

able to move into a larger office building.

10:56

And the clinic expands to five more

10:58

sites across the state of California.

11:01

I used to say we were good feminists,

11:03

bad capitalists, because we always

11:06

ran

11:06

on the minimal margin. Lindsay

11:09

and her colleagues are trained as health educators.

11:11

That means they're working with clients face to face,

11:14

helping them, counseling them, joking

11:17

with them.

11:17

Not only were we your health provider,

11:20

but we were your resource. We were

11:22

your information funneling

11:24

center. We were your job.

11:26

We were your lovers. So

11:29

we were totally enmeshed within

11:31

the community. In the mid-1970s after Roe,

11:33

Lindsay is happy

11:35

to be swept up in the momentum. It was

11:37

an explosion of feminism, especially

11:40

in the early years after the initial

11:42

Roe v. Wade decision. It was a freedom.

11:46

As the years went on, the anti-movement,

11:50

the harassment, this was not

11:52

a peaceful clash

11:55

of ideology. This was a reign

11:57

of terror.

11:59

In 1988, Lindsay's a

12:02

little over 10 years into her work at Women's

12:04

Choice Clinic. She's used

12:06

to dealing with protesters, but

12:08

she starts to see a shift. The

12:11

protesters are getting bolder.

12:13

They were using tactics that

12:15

you use for cloud control, you know, in

12:17

a riot. And they were using it against

12:20

us, these little women trying to get our clients

12:22

in the building. And they did that

12:24

by putting their bodies, by blocking doors,

12:27

by knocking people down, by

12:29

putting chopped up baby pictures

12:32

in their faces. How many people

12:34

can work in an environment where you're harassed

12:36

like that?

12:40

It was fear inducing. So that means

12:43

your patients aren't getting their services,

12:45

or you're having them climb up a fire

12:48

ladder in the back of the building. Now,

12:51

how much time do you have to take to get someone's blood

12:53

pressure to go down after they go through a scene like that?

12:56

And it just keeps escalating.

12:59

We got hate mail. We survived

13:02

acid attacks. It

13:04

never ended. And

13:07

that's how we got into RU-46.

13:10

RU-486, also known as the French

13:12

abortion pill, offers women a safe

13:14

and effective way to terminate early pregnancy

13:17

without surgery.

13:19

In October 1988, this

13:20

drug,

13:22

RU-486, aka

13:24

Mifapristone, aka the French abortion

13:27

pill,

13:27

hits the market in Europe.

13:29

The French health minister heralds it as

13:31

the moral property of women.

13:34

After six years of testing, scientists

13:37

tout it as this massive medical

13:39

breakthrough. And RU-486

13:41

catches the attention of people in the U.S. like

13:44

Lindsay. You can take a pill. No

13:46

one knows you're having an abortion. And

13:48

in this day and age, that's what you need.

13:51

RU-486 works in

13:53

the first trimester. When it's introduced

13:56

in 1988, it can only be used through

13:58

the seventh week of pregnancy. When

14:00

you take the French abortion pill, you're having a

14:02

miscarriage. That happens 25% of the

14:05

time anyway.

14:09

RU 486, mifepristone. It

14:12

works by blocking the hormone progesterone

14:14

that the body needs to maintain

14:16

a pregnancy.

14:17

The pill is usually followed by another drug,

14:20

mesoprostol, which makes the uterus contract.

14:23

Take them together and a pregnancy will end

14:25

in a miscarriage.

14:27

This method of abortion doesn't require

14:29

surgery, which in theory

14:32

means it doesn't have to happen

14:34

at a clinic. You can take it at home. What

14:37

those medication-induced pills

14:40

give us is privacy and

14:42

body sovereignty, and that

14:44

is profound to have in a handful

14:46

of pills.

14:50

In 2022, more than

14:52

half of all abortions in

14:54

this country were medication abortions.

14:57

But back when it first came out, the

15:00

U.S. didn't embrace it. In

15:02

fact, seven months after

15:05

RU 486 hits the market,

15:07

the FDA, under George

15:10

H.W. Bush, makes a move.

15:13

The Federal Drug Administration issued an import

15:15

alert that banned anyone from bringing

15:18

RU 486 into the country for personal

15:20

use.

15:21

The FDA instructs customs agents

15:23

to, quote, automatically detain

15:26

all shipments of the drug. The FDA

15:28

bans RU 486. In

15:30

fact, they ban any importation

15:33

of the drug, even a small amount, for

15:35

personal use.

15:36

You're thinking, is this

15:39

normal? Good question. Lawmakers

15:42

have the same one. The ban triggers

15:44

congressional

15:45

hearings in 1990. This

15:47

issue is so loaded with emotionalism, I

15:49

have a feeling that the FDA was carried

15:52

away by the pressures of the right

15:54

to lifers who made this a major

15:56

public issue.

15:57

That's Dr. William Regelson.

16:00

from the Medical College of Virginia. He's

16:02

an oncologist, and he saw RU 486

16:05

as a breakthrough drug, with

16:07

potential for treating breast cancer and

16:10

Cushing's disease. During

16:12

the hearing, then-Congressman Ron

16:15

Wyden of Oregon notes that the

16:17

FDA seemed to skip some steps

16:19

in moving to ban the

16:20

drug. I want to again

16:23

see if I can understand why

16:26

the agency, given even the

16:28

controversy associated

16:30

with this drug, wouldn't contact

16:33

the leading scientists in the field

16:35

to get their assessment. In fact, some of these scientists

16:38

are on the government's payroll, and they

16:40

weren't contacted.

16:42

Why not? The hearings

16:44

don't go anywhere. The ban stays.

16:47

And abortions remain in the clinics. A

16:49

place that's becoming more and more difficult

16:51

to access. That

16:53

shift in protest, Lindsay's seeing? Yeah,

16:57

it's happening

16:57

across the country. Abortion

17:00

clinics from coast to coast are being targeted

17:03

by this new, more militant,

17:06

and organized

17:06

group of anti-abortion activists.

17:09

We did it in New York, we did it in Atlanta,

17:12

we did it in California.

17:14

And that privacy RU 486

17:17

offers? Patients are

17:19

gonna need it. I thought I was leaving

17:21

the world, but in truth, I just

17:23

picked a different struggle. I picked a different side.

17:26

I was no longer a good soldier. Now

17:29

I was a soldier from my own side. That's

17:32

next. Stay with us.

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18:15

Beginning around 2015, something

18:17

strange began to happen in Hollywood. A

18:20

con artist was calling film industry workers and

18:23

offering them huge jobs on big budget movies,

18:25

always in Indonesia. Hundreds of these workers

18:28

have taken the bait and flown to Jakarta, only

18:30

to find there is no movie. It's all

18:32

a lie.

18:33

From Campside Media, it's

18:35

Chameleon, the unbelievable true story

18:37

of

18:37

one of the wildest scams in history, hosted

18:40

by me, Josh Dean. To listen to the

18:42

show, just search for Chameleon, Hollywood con

18:44

queen, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get

18:46

your podcasts.

18:51

It's called Operation Rescue, and they say

18:53

that their mission is to stop what they

18:55

call the murder of innocent babies, no

18:57

matter what price they have to pay.

19:00

The new tactics have led to thousands of arrests

19:02

in the last three months in and around New York,

19:04

Chicago, Pittsburgh, Tallahassee, Florida,

19:07

and Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

19:09

In the late 1980s, this anti-abortion

19:12

group called Operation Rescue starts

19:15

showing up at clinics. Group to my

19:17

right, go to the side door. They're

19:19

a militant, and they want to end

19:22

all abortion. Terrorist troops followed the orders

19:24

of their mostly male leaders. Both

19:26

doors of the Margaret Sanger Clinic were

19:28

quickly blocked. Tell

19:29

them he's all right now. That's it. Police

19:31

estimated the number of protesters at close

19:33

to 1,000. Michael, stop crawling.

19:36

They staged massive protests, shouted

19:39

at people entering clinics, saying

19:41

things like, don't kill your baby.

19:43

They climbed fences to get onto clinic grounds

19:45

and physically barricade entrances.

19:48

I remember one friend of mine talked about someone

19:50

trying to get through her to get to the door

19:53

of the clinic, and she really thought they were going to break

19:55

her leg.

19:57

But the thing that really sets Operation Rescue

19:59

apart... Where is this man? I'm

20:01

Randall Terry. I am the founder of Operation

20:04

Rescue. Randall Terry talks

20:06

in fire, brimstone, and

20:08

media-ready clips.

20:10

He's extreme in his beliefs,

20:13

but he's also charismatic

20:16

and skilled with a mic.

20:18

And he's a man who knows

20:20

how to produce himself. I'll speak

20:22

in soundbites. And if I start to

20:24

say something and I stumble, my cue

20:27

for myself and for you will be repeat. I

20:30

will just say repeat and then I'll give the line

20:32

again.

20:33

Randall knows how to get the media's attention

20:35

with big stunts and bigger protests.

20:38

The strategy from square one was

20:41

to get media coverage. Politicians

20:43

don't read the letters that are sent to

20:45

them, but they do read the front page

20:48

of the papers. They

20:50

do watch the evening news. Randall

20:53

says his journey to Operation Rescue started

20:55

in 1983 with a revelation. I

20:59

had a vision of a scroll

21:02

coming down in front of my eyes

21:05

with instructions on

21:08

it, on what I was to do to

21:11

bring abortion in America to an end. And

21:14

I saw thousands of people

21:17

in front of abortion clinics. I

21:19

saw myself on the Phil Donahue show.

21:22

I knew that I was going to be on Phil Donahue.

21:25

The way Randall tells it, and he tells

21:27

it a lot, one day he's just this

21:29

young evangelical preacher in Binghamton,

21:31

New York, and the next day he finds

21:34

himself called by God for a very

21:36

specific

21:36

mission. I thought maybe

21:38

I was, you know, crazy, whatever. For the next

21:41

month, I started reading

21:43

the scriptures trying to see if

21:45

this could possibly have been God

21:48

speaking to me. And I stumbled

21:50

on these concepts in

21:52

the scriptures. God hates the

21:54

shedding of innocent blood. He hates it,

21:57

and he wants it stopped. And

21:59

when he...

21:59

He reads these words, he thinks that

22:02

God is trying to communicate directly

22:05

with him. I don't think I was

22:07

God's first choice. I

22:09

think I just said yes. Randall

22:11

says he starts to pray to end abortion,

22:14

but he's dissatisfied with

22:16

the results, and he's getting impatient.

22:19

He looks around at the established anti-abortion

22:22

groups and is like, yeah, they're

22:24

not doing enough, not even close.

22:27

The national right to life was

22:29

treacherous that they were the

22:31

Benedict Arnold's and the Judases of the pro-life

22:33

movement. They're trying to have a calm,

22:36

dignified discussion with people

22:39

on the other side. Oh, we want a

22:41

place at the table.

22:43

I don't want a place at the table, not their

22:45

table. I want to turn their table into firewood.

22:47

Randall wants to stop

22:50

abortion across the board, shut

22:52

down every clinic, overturn Roe V.

22:54

Wade, criminalize abortion. Birth

22:57

control is on his hit list, too. And

22:59

he believes the best way to get his message out there

23:02

is with spectacle and hopefully

23:05

some press coverage.

23:06

And that is how Operation Rescue

23:09

gets

23:09

its start. We

23:11

had chains and locks. In 1986,

23:15

Randall ambushes a clinic close to home

23:18

in Binghamton, New York. He'd

23:20

moved to Binghamton just to protest this

23:22

clinic. He even got an apartment in

23:24

the neighborhood so he could pop by whenever

23:26

he wanted. And what he does

23:29

one early January morning will

23:31

serve as the blueprint for Randall's mission

23:33

going forward. We

23:36

walked inside and the assistant

23:38

director, she started yelling at us, get

23:40

out, get out! And we just

23:43

completely ignored her.

23:46

Randall and his crew walk right into the

23:48

clinic's procedure room. They pull out these

23:50

massive metal chains and start locking

23:53

themselves to the exam table and

23:55

to medical equipment.

23:56

They want to stop anyone from having

23:58

an abortion that day. And then we

24:01

could hear, crunk, crunk, crunk. We could hear

24:03

the jingling of the keys,

24:05

the footsteps of the officers coming down

24:07

the hall.

24:08

The police enter the room and tell Randall

24:10

and his crew to unlock themselves, but

24:12

they refuse. So they went and got bolt

24:15

cutters. The cops cut the locks, but

24:18

Operation Rescue isn't ready to go. We

24:20

said, no, we're not gonna walk out. You're gonna have to carry

24:22

us. And man, that ticked him off. Woo! They

24:25

need to be physically carried

24:28

out of the building. And Channel 12

24:30

news showed up at the last second.

24:33

And that was on the evening news.

24:38

This stunt has all

24:40

the trappings of an Operation Rescue demonstration.

24:43

Working groups, get physical,

24:45

stop care, create a scene, get

24:47

media attention. But

24:50

the local news is small potatoes.

24:54

If Randall wants to realize his vision

24:56

and make it to Phil Donahue, he's gotta

24:58

get more recruits.

25:00

So he takes Operation Rescue on the

25:02

road.

25:03

He goes city to city, staging clinic

25:05

protests and visiting churches.

25:08

He wants to convince preachers to get on

25:10

board.

25:11

I realized if you get the

25:13

shepherd, you get the sheep.

25:16

And over and over he says.

25:18

If you believe abortion is murder, act

25:21

like it's murder. This is

25:24

Operation Rescue's slogan.

25:26

Randall chooses his words carefully.

25:28

There's no room for debate. It's

25:30

a statement designed to provoke an urgent

25:33

response. It's a call

25:35

to physical action. And

25:38

people heed the call. We

25:41

did it in New York, we did it in Atlanta,

25:43

we did it in California. We had

25:45

had hundreds and hundreds of arrests.

25:48

Operation Rescue starts

25:50

to take off. By the late

25:52

80s, their membership is swelling and

25:55

Randall's booking national TV interviews.

25:58

He gets one with the 700 Club.

25:59

Pat Robertson. Joining

26:03

us live by telephone from the Fulton

26:05

County Jail in Atlanta is Randall Terry.

26:07

He's the director of Operation Rescue.

26:10

And Randall, what's happening

26:13

next down there? We feel that

26:16

it's time that we began to sacrifice,

26:19

to put some teeth in our rhetoric, as some of the

26:21

others have said.

26:22

Randall uses each media

26:24

appearance as an opportunity to recruit

26:26

new members. And towards the end, I would

26:29

say, for any of you who want to know

26:31

more, please write us

26:33

at Operation Rescue P.O. Box... Bangington,

26:37

New York, 13905. I

26:39

would just say it over and over and over

26:42

and over. And we went from having 200 people

26:45

on our mailing list. In the summer

26:47

of 88, we had 3,000 people on

26:49

the mailing list. And within the next year,

26:52

we were up to 30,000 names.

26:55

And now, it's

26:58

time to put them into action. So

27:01

Operation Rescue devises a campaign

27:03

that will trump anything they've done

27:05

to that point. It would capture

27:08

the nation's attention and be

27:10

a catalyst for that warm July

27:12

afternoon at JFK Airport.

27:15

And it happens in the American

27:17

heartland.

27:19

In Wichita, we'll dance.

27:22

We'll come by the hundreds and the thousands.

27:24

I think that Wichita, because of what

27:27

happened, made us understand that we were

27:29

under siege. That's

27:32

next.

27:42

It's a hot June day in 1991.

27:45

A group of protesters gathers outside a

27:47

medical office in Wichita, Kansas

27:50

to make an announcement. They say Operation

27:52

Rescue is coming to town, and they're going

27:54

to shut down all the clinics in the city.

27:57

They're going to have a summer of...

28:00

Mercy. Operation Rescue

28:02

chooses Wichita for a few reasons.

28:07

Number one, there were three

28:09

abortion clinics in the city. Number

28:12

two,

28:13

it's a convenient location to attract

28:15

a lot of anti-abortion protesters

28:17

from neighboring areas.

28:19

And number three, they

28:22

could protest a specific physician,

28:25

George Tiller. They even announced

28:27

their plans in front of his office. Lindsay

28:30

knows him from her work at Women's Choice Clinic. He's

28:33

famous, and she can see why

28:35

they chose him. You're going after

28:37

the people that have the knowledge base.

28:40

So targeting George and targeting

28:42

Wichita was really targeting

28:45

quality training.

28:47

Dr. Tiller was a legend in

28:49

the reproductive health care community. And,

28:51

like Lindsay, he'd seen his

28:53

fair share of protesters.

28:55

What I am doing is legal, what I'm doing is moral,

28:58

what I'm doing is ethical, and you're not

29:00

going to run me out of town. So Tiller

29:02

strikes a deal with the police. He'll

29:05

make it seem like the clinic is closed

29:07

while Operation Rescue is in town, when,

29:10

in reality, he'll still actually

29:12

be working, just on the down low.

29:15

This way, his patients and staff

29:17

won't have to deal with the protesters, and

29:20

Operation Rescue will feel like they've got

29:23

to win and move on. Right?

29:24

We

29:27

planned on going there for six days and ended

29:29

up being there six weeks. When

29:31

Tiller cut the deal with the police that he

29:34

would close while we were there, the deal

29:36

he cut actually inspired us to say

29:38

to people, look, people, if we get enough activists

29:42

in front of an abortion clinic, they

29:45

will close.

29:46

These are great

29:48

optics for Operation Rescue. Randall

29:51

points to the closed clinics and says,

29:54

look, we've made Wichita an abortion-free

29:56

city. Join us to keep it that way.

29:59

And people did. from all over the country.

30:02

And I pray that God Almighty

30:05

will one day bring you down

30:08

on your knees and you

30:10

will be begging God

30:12

for mercy. Days turn into weeks, and

30:15

the crushing weight of Operation

30:17

Rescue bears down

30:18

on Wichita. Wichita police use

30:20

two city buses and a rental truck

30:23

to haul the pro-life rescuers to jail.

30:25

These visuals, limp, protesters

30:28

being hauled off to jail, are

30:31

great fodder for the national news

30:33

outlets that have dropped into Wichita

30:35

to broadcast the spectacle.

30:36

All three major networks

30:39

are sending out a crew. PBS

30:41

is doing stuff. Phil Donahue

30:44

decides that he's going to actually shoot

30:46

a show in Wichita.

30:48

I was tempted to look

30:50

into the camera and say, Pastor,

30:53

the vision has come true.

30:56

Three weeks into the summer of mercy, and

30:59

Wichita is totally overrun

31:02

with protesters. That's

31:04

when a federal judge steps in.

31:06

If the local police won't restore order,

31:09

federal agents would.

31:12

Judge Patrick Kelly, visibly angry on the bench, called

31:15

the leaders of Operation Rescue hypocrites and

31:18

promised to see them all in jail at the clinic

31:20

blockades continued. The judge told

31:22

Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry that

31:24

the U.S. Justice Department has agreed

31:27

to provide all the federal marshals necessary

31:29

to enforce his order.

31:31

Federal Judge Patrick Kelly calls in

31:33

U.S. marshals to keep Wichita's clinics

31:35

open. He tells Operation Rescue...

31:38

They should say farewell to their family

31:40

and bring their toothbrush, and I mean it because

31:43

they're going to jail. They thought,

31:45

hey, if we can just get Randall Terry behind bars, this

31:47

whole thing will go away. Yeah, you

31:49

don't understand how deep our bench

31:52

is.

31:53

Operation Rescue has this savvy

31:55

attorney during the summer of mercy, Jay

31:58

Sekulow. Jay

32:00

Sekulow, as in Donald Trump's

32:03

personal lawyer and lead attorney

32:05

during his first impeachment trial.

32:07

He was a get.

32:09

Randall wants to keep up momentum

32:11

in Wichita, and with their new powerhouse

32:14

lawyer, he feels like he has some muscle

32:16

behind him.

32:24

The DOJ issues a brief siding

32:27

with Operation Rescue, and it

32:29

gets support from someone high

32:31

up,

32:32

the deputy solicitor general,

32:34

John Roberts. He is,

32:37

of course, the current Chief Justice

32:40

of the United States Supreme Court. The

32:42

brief argues that federal law offers

32:44

no protection for patients trying

32:47

to enter abortion clinics.

32:48

It started us because we

32:51

had had so many failures in court, we

32:53

had had so many things go wrong,

32:56

that we prevailed. I

32:58

was on cloud nine. Randall

33:00

Terry, founder of Operation Rescue,

33:02

said he was pleased to have the Bush

33:04

administration on his side. It

33:07

looks like his honor, Judge Kelly,

33:10

has gone against the law, and

33:12

he's going to eat a big portion

33:15

of humble pie before this is over.

33:17

I hope he enjoys the taste of it.

33:19

Operation Rescue wins

33:22

the summer. As August comes

33:24

to a close, they take a victory lap

33:26

and host a 25,000 person rally. Evangelical

33:32

darling,

33:32

Pat Robertson is there. The

33:35

issue is a moral imperative

33:38

from God Almighty to rescue

33:40

those led to slaughter.

33:44

Randall Terry had left his mark.

33:48

The pressure is unrelenting.

33:52

The FDA bans the abortion pill,

33:54

Randall Terry is meted onto Donahue,

33:57

and the DOJ seems to have Operation

33:59

Rescue.

33:59

back. Lindsay,

34:02

the clinic worker, sees all

34:04

of this. I don't believe

34:07

that the government was on my side.

34:10

And the solution is out there.

34:13

RU 486, the abortion

34:15

pill, could be the key to challenging

34:17

groups like Operation Rescue.

34:23

By the end of the summer of Mercy, in 1991, the

34:25

medication is available more widely in Europe

34:29

and in Asia too.

34:31

But there is no movement in the U.S.

34:33

Activists tried to lobby the Bush

34:36

administration to lift the ban on RU 486,

34:39

but nothing was working.

34:41

We are being denied technology and

34:43

we are being denied science

34:45

because of Christian theocracy. The

34:48

summer of Mercy spurs activists on

34:50

the left. They decide they won't

34:52

be denied any longer. This is

34:54

something that we need to defend women.

34:57

We need to defend against this

34:59

craziness. But

35:01

how will they get this game-changing medication

35:03

here?

35:05

The government won't bring it in and

35:07

so far the makers of the pill aren't

35:09

asking for FDA approval either.

35:12

Well, when the official channels

35:14

are closed, you find a different way.

35:17

You just have to say, you know, I'm not waiting

35:19

anymore. And that if we don't move

35:21

now, how are we going to go forward?

35:25

Activists need to go big. They

35:27

need someone with a plan bold enough

35:29

to go toe to toe with the likes of Randall

35:32

Terry and Operation Rescue.

35:35

And lucky for them, that

35:36

someone is already there, waiting

35:39

in the wings of the abortion rights movement

35:41

for decades. But

35:43

the architect of this plot isn't

35:45

a doctor or a clinic worker.

35:48

We knew it had to be done and

35:51

we were determined that American women

35:53

would get it. It's that

35:55

72-year-old man from the plane.

35:57

His name is Larry.

36:00

Larry Leder.

36:03

And he's ready to break the law

36:06

to bring the abortion pill into

36:08

America. It was a move of desperation.

36:10

Like many other of Larry's

36:13

ideas, I thought it was totally hair-break.

36:16

Totally crazy.

36:17

It's a plot so wild

36:19

that his own lawyers beg him to

36:21

do literally anything else to

36:24

bring RU-486 to the states

36:26

and save abortion access for a

36:28

generation of Americans.

36:31

I know that RU-486 is the treatment

36:33

I want. It allows me control of my body

36:35

and removes me from the operating room and from

36:38

surgery. This season, uncover

36:40

up the pill plot. We dig into

36:42

the risky plan to bring RU-486

36:45

to America amid a rising

36:47

tide of aggression

36:47

from anti-abortion forces.

36:50

Can we find a patient who

36:53

wanted to do this? We found

36:55

a punk. We found an anarchist. That's

36:57

not who they wanted. She was treated

37:00

abysmally. Our

37:02

telephone was tapped. Abortion

37:05

rights activist Lawrence Leder hired his own

37:07

chemist to dissect the French abortion

37:09

pill.

37:10

We were afraid that the lab would get blown

37:12

up. We knew where Clinton

37:14

was staying and we knew his

37:17

schedule.

37:17

As he left to jog this morning, Clinton

37:19

was confronted by a man from Operation Rescue

37:22

posing as an autograph seeker. 61 arsons, 266 bomb threats, 57

37:23

acid attacks. People

37:31

climbing over your 10-foot

37:32

fence to get into

37:34

your garbage, talking to your

37:36

mailman like you're a fucking serial killer. 395 incidents

37:38

of vandalism, 68 assaults. It

37:43

is a national disgrace that

37:46

women have had to wait so long for

37:49

a drug that has proved its value

37:51

worldwide.

37:52

Sometimes justice moves very

37:55

slowly. The bottom

37:57

line is we never give up.

38:05

To listen to the rest of the season, just

38:08

search for cover up the pill plot wherever

38:10

you get your podcasts. The full season

38:12

is available right

38:14

now.

38:15

Thanks for listening and happy binging.