0:00

The bench.

0:08

Previously on Cover Up, the

0:11

pill plot. Keep the clinic

0:13

closed. Keep it closed. You can take

0:15

a pill no one knows you're having an abortion. And

0:17

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

0:20

The Federal Drug Administration issued an import

0:22

alert that banned anyone from bringing

0:25

our U-486 into the country for personal

0:27

use. This is something that we need to

0:29

defend women. So we became outside agitators.

0:37

I guess I'll start by asking, how did you first

0:39

meet Larry? I'll never forget

0:42

the first time I saw him. It

0:44

was my mother's birthday, June 24, 1961.

0:52

Joan later was studying in Italy at the time, and

0:54

she took her mom to this remote beach along

0:56

the Amalfi coast. There was almost

0:59

nobody there, and about 5.30

1:02

in the afternoon as we were leaving, we

1:05

literally bumped into Larry. The

1:08

backdrop is so cinematic,

1:10

you can just imagine the scene. Joan,

1:13

this Scottish student, a secluded

1:15

beach, and this mysterious

1:18

American stranger, Larry.

1:22

His

1:22

hair was disheveled. He had

1:24

on an old t-shirt and old

1:27

swimming trunks, and nothing

1:30

terribly great to look at. He

1:32

invited us for a drink, and

1:34

we stayed and chatted, and he was

1:37

the most fascinating guy

1:40

I had ever met.

1:42

Larry is in Italy for work. He's

1:45

a writer, stringing for places like Life

1:47

Magazine and The New Yorker. He's

1:49

in Italy searching for his next

1:52

great story.

1:53

He was staying in a hotel that

1:55

a lot of writers stayed in, and

1:58

they had a common terrace that ran away.

1:59

wrapped all the way around and they all

2:02

shared a bathroom. And

2:04

they shared a lot of other things. And he called

2:07

the group the Lounging and Letching

2:09

Society.

2:11

They were sort of two Larrys.

2:14

In some ways, Larry's total

2:16

old boys club. He grew up rich,

2:18

he kicks it at the Harvard Club and

2:21

summers in the Hamptons. You

2:23

can picture that guy. But

2:26

then Joan tells me about

2:29

this guy. Our telephone

2:32

was tapped. So we had

2:34

to be very careful if anybody called.

2:37

We did not know until

2:40

we had another separate line put

2:42

in. The technician

2:44

said, do you know that your phone is tapped?

2:47

You see, Larry rolls with

2:50

a radical crew. We

2:52

were quite friendly with Betty. That's

2:55

Betty as in women's rights

2:57

legend, Betty Friedan. Larry

3:00

started hanging out with her when he had just

3:02

graduated from Harvard and Friedan

3:05

was still an undergrad at Smith.

3:07

I read the feminine mystique when I was 15. And

3:10

my dad actually bought it for me when

3:13

I turned 15. And he was like, you should read this. Terrific

3:16

for your dad, my gosh. And

3:19

Larry has unpopular

3:21

opinions, dangerous opinions.

3:25

And he's saying these opinions, these

3:27

convictions out loud

3:30

to a lot of people.

3:32

And our guests on this panel

3:35

are Alfred Julian and Lawrence

3:37

Lader, who's author of a book

3:39

about to be published called Abortion.

3:42

In 1966, he

3:44

goes on New York Public Radio. This

3:47

is seven years before

3:49

Roe v. Wade. Abortion is

3:51

still mostly illegal in the state and

3:54

across the country. I

3:57

happen to believe that these abortion

3:59

laws should be... broken right and left as

4:01

at least a million women a year are

4:03

doing. I think that

4:06

the only way we can eliminate them is to go to

4:08

court to break them openly and openly

4:10

over and over again. I don't think

4:12

you meant to imply, Larry, that the way to cope

4:14

with this

4:15

is to encourage people to break the law. I'm

4:18

sure you... They're already breaking it. They've

4:20

been breaking it for 100 years. You cannot ever

4:22

keep anarchy on our program, sorry. I

4:25

don't know whether I'm talking anarchy,

4:27

leftism, rightism. I'm talking common sense.

4:31

Listening to Larry speak, I

4:33

get the sense that he's thought this through

4:35

and he's ready to go to jail for the

4:37

cause or maybe start a

4:40

revolution. If men and women

4:41

have the right to vote, if they have

4:43

the right to live as human beings, they have

4:45

the basic right of deciding

4:48

whether they should have children or not have

4:50

children. This to me is one

4:52

of my basic rights in this country

4:55

and if I don't have it, I think women should

4:57

be out in the streets screaming as they did

4:59

for the vote.

5:00

All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Lader.

5:02

I'm sure that quite a few of them will as a result of your talk.

5:06

Larry's book, Abortion,

5:09

winds up being cited in the Roe v. Wade

5:11

decision eight times.

5:14

And this is what I find so

5:16

bizarre about Larry when I'm listening

5:18

to him. He comes from a rarefied

5:21

world. You can hear it in his voice.

5:24

He could have been the rich, progressive guy

5:26

donating to various causes, sitting

5:29

on boards, getting tickets to charity

5:31

galas, maybe pro bono work.

5:34

But

5:35

that's not his style. Larry

5:37

doesn't dabble in causes. He's

5:40

laser focused on one issue,

5:42

abortion rights. And he pulls

5:45

his wildest, riskiest move

5:47

at the age of 72. Nobody

5:52

expected it. It struck me as

5:55

revolutionary in a sense, a game changer. From

5:58

the get

5:58

go, I have learned never to. to be surprised

6:01

by what he might come up with. When

6:03

he decides to bring RU-486 into the US,

6:07

it's by any means necessary, even

6:10

drug smuggling. But if

6:13

Larry wants to pull that off,

6:15

he's gonna need help, specialized

6:18

help. He's gotta assemble a team.

6:22

From Sony Music Entertainment, this

6:24

is Cover Up the Pill Plot. I'm

6:26

your host, TJ Raphael. On

6:29

today's show, we unfurl

6:31

the blueprint of the pill plot and

6:33

meet the mastermind and the team trying

6:36

to make the impossible possible.

6:39

Chapter two, the blueprint. Stay

6:41

with us.

6:45

I'm Adam McKay, director,

6:47

writer, and most importantly, podcast

6:49

host. In the first season of our

6:51

show, Death at the Wind, we explored a

6:54

series of tragic deaths from the

6:56

wild world of 80s basketball.

6:58

This season, we're going back further to

7:01

the 50s, the aftermath of World War II, and

7:04

a series of tragedies in Hollywood.

7:07

We'll tell stories of trailblazing

7:09

actors who lived fast

7:12

and died young. I hope you'll

7:14

join us on

7:15

Death on the Lot.

7:20

When I started researching

7:22

the abortion pill last year, Larry's

7:25

name kept popping up. In

7:27

old news articles, archival documents,

7:30

court filings. Over and over,

7:32

I kept seeing this name, Larry

7:35

Leder. I've been on the reproductive

7:37

health beat for years. I've made

7:39

a whole show about sperm and egg donors.

7:42

This is my zone, but I had

7:44

never heard of him.

7:46

I was like, Larry Leder, who is

7:48

this guy?

7:50

We've been in this apartment since 1961.

7:54

So I went to visit Joan Leder. Look

7:56

at it. And so here's this typewriter.

8:01

This, I was with him. He bought this in

8:03

Rome and

8:06

he wanted this olivetti.

8:09

They certainly don't make them like this anymore.

8:12

It's funny, he could graduate to a fax

8:14

machine but not a computer.

8:18

Right, right. Joan

8:20

lives in the same Manhattan co-op she

8:22

and Larry shared for 45 years.

8:25

Larry died in 2006 when he was 86 years old. Her

8:29

apartment is spectacular, by the

8:31

way. It's like a pre-war dream.

8:34

Tasteful, homey. There's

8:37

a full-on grand piano overlooking

8:39

this historic church. He was

8:41

not a doctor. He never went to medical

8:44

school. I think when he was at college

8:46

he was so involved in various different

8:48

causes that he

8:51

wasn't such a great student either.

8:54

When Larry gets swept up in a cause,

8:56

it's like he gets tunnel vision.

8:59

And he doesn't have patience for hesitation

9:02

or half steps. That, and

9:05

also he

9:06

didn't have a job.

9:08

So, as you know,

9:10

having a job can take up a

9:12

lot of your time. Larry

9:15

has money. Money that buys

9:17

him time to be a full-time activist.

9:20

Money that allows him to devote himself to

9:22

this issue. And he spends a great

9:24

deal of that time connecting with

9:26

high-profile feminists like his

9:28

old friend, Betty Friedan.

9:31

One night in his living room, he hosts a

9:33

meeting and helps starts the leading

9:35

abortion rights group, NARL. I

9:38

sat

9:38

up there and watched it was

9:40

all down here on the couch. The

9:43

same cover, the

9:45

same everything. This was here too.

9:48

There's a reason why Betty Friedan

9:50

declares Larry the father

9:53

of the abortion rights movement.

9:56

When the Roe v. Wade decision comes down

9:58

in 1973,

11:59

all the way back to the diaphragm. And

12:02

the story of how Sanger brought birth

12:04

control to the U.S. is

12:06

quite a tale,

12:08

one that would prove to be consequential

12:10

in Larry's push to bring the abortion

12:12

pill to the United States.

12:15

It's called the One Package

12:18

Case. Here he is talking

12:20

about it on public radio station WNYC

12:22

in 1966. In 1936,

12:25

this One Package Case completely

12:28

reversed the federal birth

12:30

control law so that really by

12:32

court action, the old birth control

12:34

law fell into discard. It's true

12:36

that New

12:36

York's- The One Package Case, AKA

12:39

Margaret Sanger's plot to give Americans

12:41

the legal right to birth control,

12:44

starts in 1873 with the Comstock Act.

12:50

The Comstock Act prohibits the mailing

12:52

of, quote, obscene, lewd,

12:55

or lascivious materials, which

12:58

in the 1930s includes anything to do with

13:01

contraception.

13:01

And in the 1930s, contraceptives

13:05

are still illegal in the United States.

13:08

Doctors can't prescribe them, and it's a

13:10

crime for Americans to import

13:12

them because of, well, Comstock.

13:15

Sanger tries to change the law for years, but

13:17

nothing's working. So she figures

13:20

if you can't change the law, test

13:22

it.

13:23

Sanger asks a doctor in Japan

13:26

where contraception is legal to

13:28

mail a package of pessiaries. That's

13:31

like a diaphragm

13:32

to her colleague in the U.S. But

13:34

that's just one part of the plot.

13:36

The most important, Sanger makes

13:38

sure the government knows that the contraband

13:41

is heading to the U.S. She wants

13:43

it to be intercepted. And

13:46

it works. Customs agents seize

13:48

the package, and Sanger appeals to

13:50

the federal government to get it back on

13:52

the grounds that contraceptives are medically

13:55

necessary, which would make

13:57

them an exception under Comstock.

14:00

And

14:01

they win. The court rules that

14:03

doctors have a right to prescribe birth

14:05

control. Here's Sanger talking

14:07

about the victory back in the 1930s.

14:11

That's the law of land now recognizes

14:13

birth control legally as a necessary

14:16

part of medical practice. So

14:19

when Larry sees what the government is doing

14:21

with RU 486,

14:23

he knows he has to test the law too.

14:25

And he has an idea about how to do it. He

14:28

visits his longtime lawyer, Marshall

14:31

Beal. I was the voice of reason

14:33

and Larry was the voice of creativity. I won't

14:35

say that I was the grown up in the room because

14:37

Larry was older than me.

14:39

Larry makes his pitch. Like

14:42

many other of Larry's ideas,

14:45

I thought it was totally hair braids, totally

14:47

crazy. And it goes something

14:49

like this. Okay, so

14:52

the goal is to lift that pesky federal

14:54

ban on RU 486. I

14:57

want Americans to have access to it. So

14:59

here's how I'm going to do it. I'm going to find

15:01

a pregnant woman who wants an abortion. She's

15:04

got to be early in her pregnancy. I'm

15:07

going to get this woman a prescription for

15:09

the abortion pill. She and I will

15:11

fly to London with the prescription. We'll get

15:13

the pills. Then we'll smuggle

15:15

the medication back to New York City. All

15:18

alert customs officials ahead of time, of

15:20

course. And fingers crossed,

15:23

customs will confiscate it. Drum

15:26

roll, please. The pregnant

15:28

woman can sue the government to get the abortion

15:31

pills

15:31

back and we can change the law. I

15:35

was very concerned because the plan

15:37

put him and the person

15:39

he was going to be traveling with at risk of getting arrested

15:42

and jailed.

15:44

Marshall's right. To say that

15:46

success wasn't guaranteed is a

15:49

massive understatement. Larry

15:52

runs his plot by a few lawyers and

15:55

they desperately try to warn him

15:57

off. I've seen some of these

15:59

letters. The

16:01

attorneys tell him, quote,

16:03

this is just not the way to get

16:05

this accomplished. And quote,

16:07

there will be a very strong

16:09

drive to bring a criminal prosecution.

16:13

Civil liabilities could wipe out a Rockefeller.

16:16

And quote, I'm almost

16:18

thinking out loud, but I wonder whether

16:21

all possible alternatives have

16:23

been explored

16:24

because this alternative is far too risky.

16:29

But remember, Larry is persuasive.

16:31

He talks with Marshall. And then

16:34

the two of us sat down, and in our discussions,

16:36

he came up with a plan that I thought would

16:38

work.

16:38

Marshall's on board, kinda.

16:42

He's known Larry for a long time. He understands

16:45

him. If the chances of winning

16:47

are slim, Larry's still

16:49

gonna make the shot. As

16:52

a crusader, he assumed

16:54

that the worst would not happen because if

16:56

you think the worst is gonna happen, you

16:59

can't be a crusader. You have to assume that somebody

17:01

out there is gonna say, yes, you're

17:03

right.

17:05

With his lawyer reluctantly on board,

17:08

Larry sets out to get the prescription for RU-486.

17:11

To do that, he needs to find a doctor

17:13

who is willing to break the law.

17:16

The drug has not been tested or approved

17:19

yet in the United States. Are you convinced that it's safe?

17:22

It has been tested and used by

17:24

over 100,000 women in France,

17:27

England, and other countries, and found

17:29

to be very safe, in fact. Dr.

17:32

Louise Tyre was an OB-GYN and the

17:34

former medical director of Planned Parenthood.

17:36

That's her on NPR's Fresh Air back in

17:38

the 90s. She passed away in 2010. Dr.

17:42

Tyre was a big believer in RU-486, and

17:45

she was working hard to overturn

17:46

the Bush administration's ban. When

17:49

Larry hits her up for help, she's down

17:51

with the plan. She agrees to be the

17:53

scheme's doctor. She'll write a

17:55

script and make sure everything goes smoothly and

17:58

safely.

17:59

For the doctor on the team, Larry sets

18:02

off to find the next piece of the puzzle. The

18:04

key to the whole thing.

18:07

A pregnant woman willing to smuggle

18:09

abortion pills into the U.S. illegally

18:10

and be

18:13

caught. He'd

18:15

have to find a needle in a haystack. Someone

18:17

who wanted a medication abortion,

18:20

but also was willing to put herself in

18:22

the center of a national political firestorm.

18:24

It was just very,

18:27

very, very hard. Coming

18:29

up, Larry searches for the Jane

18:32

Roe of the 1990s and

18:34

hits some bumps along the way. Stay

18:37

with us.

18:44

Once that door was closed, he was

18:46

on the phone all the time.

18:49

Larry's working his rolodex hard to

18:51

find a woman willing to sign onto

18:53

his plot. He keeps striking

18:56

out. So Larry realizes

18:58

he can't do this on his own. He

19:01

needs someone with a lot of connections.

19:04

A fixer. Larry has

19:06

just the person in mind. Steve

19:09

Heilig, the director of Public Health

19:11

for the San Francisco Medical Society.

19:15

Steve's also not a doctor. He's

19:17

a public health policy guy. But

19:19

Larry knows that Steve also

19:22

has a deep rolodex.

19:24

I knew a lot of really top-notch clinicians,

19:27

you know, professors, heads of departments

19:29

at local hospitals. These are all people I knew

19:31

through the medical society.

19:33

Like Larry, Steve is frustrated

19:36

by the government's ban on RU 486. You

19:38

know, we've got to break this log jam. This

19:40

pill could sit in limbo here forever.

19:43

Larry flies out to California to make the pitch.

19:46

It struck me as revolutionary

19:48

in a sense, a game changer. To give a woman a choice,

19:51

would you rather take the pills or have a surgical

19:53

abortion?

19:55

Larry lays it all out

19:57

for Steve. For this heist

19:59

to work, they'll need a doctor.

19:59

to find a pregnant woman.

20:01

Larry can't get a prescription for

20:03

the abortion pill for himself,

20:06

but neither can just any pregnant

20:09

woman.

20:10

At the time, the abortion pill

20:12

is only prescribed if a person meets certain

20:15

criteria. They

20:16

need to be under 35 years old, a nonsmoker,

20:19

and have no history of hypertension.

20:23

And they have to be early in

20:25

their pregnancy. It's a little

20:27

different now, but back then, the

20:29

abortion pill was only permitted for use

20:32

through the

20:32

eighth week. But

20:35

the thorniest requirement was specific

20:37

to this scheme. This

20:39

pregnant woman had to be down with being

20:41

the public face of the abortion

20:44

pill,

20:45

at a time when most people kept their abortions

20:47

secret.

20:48

There was no hashtag myabortionstory.

20:52

That wouldn't come for two more decades. So,

20:55

Larry asks Steve, Can we

20:57

find a patient who wanted to do

20:59

this? Steve

21:02

agrees to work his connections under

21:04

one condition. Under no

21:07

circumstances could his employer know

21:09

about this scheme. It has

21:11

to be secret.

21:13

Larry's like, I got you.

21:16

As Steve puts out the word to OBGYNs

21:18

around San Francisco, Larry

21:21

flies back to Manhattan and works the

21:23

phones on his end. His

21:25

address book was full

21:28

of names. Larry locks himself

21:30

in his office and makes calls all day and

21:32

all night. He calls clinics, he reaches out to

21:34

feminist groups on college campuses, he

21:37

meets with doctors and nurses. And

21:39

finally, he gets a couple of bites. Well,

21:42

he had two or three possibilities.

21:45

These possibilities are

21:48

women who meet the medical requirements.

21:50

And they want RU 486. They would

21:52

rather take some pills than undergo surgery,

21:55

if given the option.

21:56

But then, Larry tells them, if

21:59

this don't work, It'll get tons of media

22:01

attention. Your face will be on the evening

22:03

news and on the front page of every newspaper

22:06

across the country. We'll take this all

22:08

the way to the Supreme Court.

22:09

When Larry shares the intricacies of this plan,

22:12

well, they bail. It

22:14

did seem that no woman would put herself

22:17

into that situation.

22:20

One woman signs up and

22:23

changes her mind that same day, afraid

22:25

she'll lose her job when the news gets out. Another

22:27

woman has the same turnaround, afraid

22:30

the headlines could mess up her divorce. Finally,

22:33

Larry gets a call from

22:35

a woman who seems really promising.

22:39

He arranges to meet her in person over

22:41

dinner. The meeting turned

22:43

out to be a soap opera fiasco.

22:47

According to Larry's book, A Private

22:50

Matter, R.U. 486, when

22:52

she arrives at the restaurant, she walks

22:55

into the joint with an older man. They

22:58

glide over to Larry's table and sit.

23:01

Larry rehashes the plan for them. We'll fly to London,

23:04

we'll get the pills, return

23:06

to New York and meet the press. We'll tell the

23:08

government to come and get us, and we'll fight this in the

23:10

courts. After

23:13

hearing all of this, the older man grows

23:16

distressed. He's like, you

23:18

want to do what? Larry

23:21

is pretty sure he knows what's happening here. The

23:23

older guy is the pregnant woman's boss.

23:26

They've been having an affair. He

23:28

doesn't want any part of something so public.

23:31

But I

23:31

explained this all to you. No,

23:34

darling, impossible. My

23:36

wife is a jealous Italian. You

23:39

appear at a press conference, and my

23:41

wife, the office, everyone will know about

23:43

us. All I've worked for will be

23:46

swept away in one big wave.

23:48

The woman insists their affair

23:50

would be kept secret. I am

23:52

determined to go through with it. You

23:54

do this, and I don't talk to you. You

23:57

try to stop me, and I won't

23:59

talk to you. to you. They

24:02

leave the restaurant and that was

24:05

the end of that. A

24:08

year goes by and Larry still

24:10

isn't found as Jane Roe. I think he had

24:13

almost given up. But

24:15

then Larry gets a phone call.

24:18

This is a

24:18

big choice to make and you got to make it quick. It's

24:21

his fixer. He's found

24:24

the one.

24:27

That's next. Stay with

24:30

us.

24:32

Don't want to wait for that next episode?

24:34

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24:37

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24:40

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24:42

the Binge Podcast channel. Just

24:45

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24:48

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25:10

Steve, Larry's fixer, is

25:13

over in San Francisco working the phones

25:16

and he's kind of in the same boat as Larry.

25:18

He's gotten a few nibbles.

25:21

There were at least five

25:24

I think who were

25:27

committed but then said I just can't. I

25:29

just can't because my parents

25:31

will be so ashamed because everyone

25:34

I work with will find out because

25:36

my community will disown me. Everyone

25:39

had a reason why. They just

25:42

couldn't. They could not

25:44

find that courageous person

25:47

because they were looking into mainstream

25:50

muck

25:51

and that to find that person they

25:53

had to come to the most radical left

25:56

coast, west coast.

25:58

still doing

26:00

her thing in Oakland running Women's Choice Clinic

26:03

when Steve reaches out to her colleague for

26:05

help, a guy named Dr. Bud Gore.

26:07

He's like, we need to break the band.

26:10

We need this. And I'm like, well, what do you really

26:12

need? And it's like, we need a pregnant

26:14

woman who's willing to go to England and

26:16

stand up and do this. And I'm like, oh,

26:19

OK, well, let's see what we can do. And

26:21

the folks at Women's Choice Clinic

26:23

get it, pretty much right out

26:25

of the gate. They find the one.

26:30

So she was pregnant. She was going to have an abortion. This

26:33

woman is not yet six weeks pregnant.

26:36

She's 29 years old.

26:37

And she fits the medical requirements.

26:40

So Lindsay's staff ask her, hey,

26:43

you want to do a medication-induced abortion?

26:45

Go fight the Supreme Court. What do you think? This

26:47

is what's happening. And she was like, oh,

26:49

OK, I can do that. Let's do it.

26:53

This badass' name is Leona.

26:55

Do you remember her, the punk from the flight? Leona

26:58

was a person some of my staff knew

27:01

personally.

27:02

Lindsay isn't surprised that

27:04

Leona is the one who finally fits the bill.

27:07

She's from the Bay Area, the place

27:09

that gave birth to the Free Speech Movement

27:12

and the Black Panthers. She was an

27:14

activist. She'd been involved in

27:16

the movement. And when anti-abortion

27:19

activists came to San Francisco to

27:21

blockade a clinic a few years before,

27:24

Leona was right in the middle of that. She

27:26

was a clinic defender. She'd been outside

27:29

protecting women. She is

27:31

primed for this

27:32

mission. I think that when you

27:34

are an activist and you believe that

27:36

your life is about change, that you

27:39

rise to the occasion. Leona

27:41

is ready to break the law. She's ready

27:43

to put her private medical decisions on display

27:45

for the whole world to see. She'd

27:47

do all that and more if it brings the

27:49

abortion pill to the US. And

27:52

I really viewed her as a soldier, that

27:55

she was doing for American women

27:58

what soldiers do all day.

27:59

all the time, putting your body on the line.

28:04

She's just about six

28:07

weeks pregnant. And at that time,

28:09

the abortion pill could only be used

28:12

through the end of the eighth week.

28:15

That means they have less than two weeks to

28:17

enact the whole plot. They need to fly

28:20

to London, get caught at JFK, and

28:22

push their case through the courts. They

28:24

had to move. We gotta get your tickets,

28:27

we gotta get your passport. I mean, it really

28:30

was a rush job. On June

28:32

28th, 1992, Leona flies across the country to

28:36

meet Larry at his Fifth Avenue apartment.

28:38

You know, there's some people who walk in

28:41

and they're just immediately at home. She

28:44

was just very

28:45

comfortable in her skin. She

28:48

was 29, freewheeling, but

28:51

upright, physically upright,

28:53

mentally upright. She was

28:55

just carrying a small bag. It might even

28:57

have been an APSAC type of bag.

29:00

And she said she only had two pairs of jeans.

29:03

Dr. Louise Tyre, the

29:05

doctor who writes the script for Leona,

29:08

is at Larry's apartment too.

29:10

She flew in from her home in Nevada as soon

29:12

as she heard they'd found their Jane Roe.

29:15

In the living room, Larry and Dr.

29:17

Tyre ask Leona, are you ready

29:19

to do this? I'm sure that

29:21

there must have been a degree of nervousness

29:24

there, but she was confident

29:27

and she was very committed to women's

29:29

rights.

29:30

The next day, June 29th, 1992, Leona

29:35

and Larry are booked on a red eye. They

29:37

pack their bags and call a cab. What'd

29:40

you say to her when she was leaving? Oh,

29:42

just all the best, dear. They

29:47

have the prescription from Dr. Louise

29:49

Tyre in hand. If everything

29:51

goes to plan, that prescription

29:54

is Leona's ticket to the abortion she

29:56

wants and a future

29:58

in which it's available to...

29:59

everyone across the country. But

30:03

as Leona boards the red-eye to London late

30:05

that night with Larry, her

30:07

72-year-old fancy-pants accomplice,

30:10

it's hard to shake the lawyer's warning

30:13

that this wild scheme might not be

30:15

the way to get this accomplished.

30:19

She had not been prepared in advance

30:22

for what she would be facing. I

30:24

said I had some medication, and

30:26

they wanted to look at it, and I gave it

30:28

to them.

30:28

And the customs agents, they realized

30:31

what had happened here, and they were not happy. They'd

30:33

been tricked.

30:36

Next time, on Cover Up, the pill

30:38

plot, the heist gets underway, and

30:40

Leona goes to battle once again. I'm

30:42

angry, I'm stressed out.

30:44

And they were out there chasing her down. We

30:46

started to think, hey, maybe we have

30:49

a shot here at winning this. I

30:51

called up Harley and I said, Harley, I need you to come to New

30:53

York City immediately.

31:00

Cover Up, the pill plot,

31:01

is produced by Sony Music Entertainment. The

31:06

show is hosted by me, TJ Raphael. Our story

31:08

editor is Maureen McMurray. Our

31:10

senior producer is Quina Kim. Our

31:13

producer is Casey Georgie. Our

31:16

associate producer is Kyra Asi-Babe Bansu, along with Gabriela

31:18

Santana. Our

31:21

executive producer is Lizzie Jacobs. Sassonia

31:24

Davenport and Tamika Balance Kalosny are our production

31:26

managers. Theme music and mixing

31:29

for this show was done by Joanna Catcher

31:31

of Nice Manners. Additional music

31:33

comes from APM. Our

31:36

fact-checker is Natsumi Ajisaka. Special

31:40

thanks to Krista Ripple, Erica Gaida, Serena Chow,

31:42

Rachel Trotter, Catherine St. Louis, Tom

31:44

Koenig, Steve Ackerman, Ryan

31:47

Shepherd, and Christopher Brown.

31:50

The audio

31:52

of Larry Lader's WNYC appearance came

31:54

to us courtesy of the NYC Municipal

31:57

Archive. Special thanks to them. and

32:00

Andy Landsat at WNYC. You

32:03

can listen to all of Cover Up the Pill plot

32:05

by signing up for the Binge and Apple Podcasts.

32:08

And we'd love for you to leave a rating

32:10

and review while you're there too. Have

32:13

a question or comment about this week's show?

32:15

Send me a tweet at TJ

32:18

Rafael. Thanks so much for listening. For

32:20

Sony Music Entertainment, I'm TJ

32:22

Rafael.