The International Drug Smuggling Scheme That Brought the Abortion Pill to the US
An interview with storyteller T.J. Raphael about her new podcast "The Pill Plot"
If you only get one thing from today’s newsletter, let it be this: Download the podcast Cover Up: The Pill Plot.
I listen to more podcasts than is perhaps healthy. But to be honest, I don’t listen to all that many related to my work (politics, feminism, abortion rights, etc). When I’m off the clock, I don’t want to listen to a summary of everything I just spent my day reading and writing about. I want a good story; I want to be taken on a ride.
The Pill Plot is exactly that. It is a wild, rollicking story about abortion pills (really). Even if you think you know all about the history of abortion rights in the United States, The Pill Plot will surprise you. And while the future of abortion in America abortion doesn’t exactly look bright these days, there’s a lot to this podcast that will delight and maybe even inspire you.
I talked with Pill Plot host T.J. Raphael about how this largely-untold story came across her desk, why it matters now, and what abortion rights supporters can learn from this unsung part of our history. And while I can’t promise no spoilers, this interview won’t give too much away.
Jill: T.J., this is a crazy-ass story about how the abortion pill came to America, and like you, I've been covering reproductive health for a decade and had never heard about it. How did you come across it?
T.J.: After Roe V. Wade was overturned in June 2022, I started to look into mifepristone. I knew that the medication was vitally important in the face of abortion bans that were kicking in across the country.
During an early phase of my research, I had seen this story about a pregnant woman who, in 1992, flew from London to JFK airport with mifepristone in an attempt to overturn what was then a federal ban on the drug. Her name is Leona Benten. Her story was mentioned in one paragraph of this academic paper I found. It seemed like an afterthought. But I started to pull the string, and uncovered a vast web of activism.
I dug through old newspapers to find the names of people who helped Benten pull off this stunt — namely, a clinic director named Linci Comy, and an abortion rights activist, Larry Lader, who Betty Friedan called the “father of the abortion rights movement”.
I visited Smith College in Massachusetts and looked through the Lawrence Lader archives — his wife had donated all of his papers and life’s work to the school after his death in 2006. There, I found hundreds of documents containing original source materials, and I knew I had a big story!
Jill: What's your background in reporting on reproductive rights and health?
T.J.: I’ve been covering reproductive rights for about a decade. I worked at public radio station WNYC for years and pitched and produced all kinds of stories on abortion access, including a special hour-long program commemorating the 45th anniversary of Roe V. Wade. In 2022, I released my investigative series on the business behind assisted reproductive technology, BioHacked: Family Secrets, with Sony’s Global Podcast Unit. That was the culmination of five years of reporting. I had produced shorter series about abortion specifically, but never something as hefty as The Pill Plot. I’m thrilled that it’s finally out in the world.
Jill: Why do you think even those of us deep in Abortion World have never heard this story?
T.J.: I think that stories about women’s health and women’s history are not often given the space to be told. They can be confined to Women’s History Month. Editors feel there isn’t a large enough audience; that it won’t drive web traffic or listenership. I think this story shows that women’s history can be as exciting as an action thriller.
Additionally, I think this story hasn’t been told because Leona Benten has shied away from the media. She was treated horribly in 1992 when she signed up to be the “Jane Roe for the 1990s.” I can’t blame her for not wanting to talk to the press. I think some journalists might have said, “Without her, I can’t tell this story.” But I think there were so many players around her in this story, that it still could be told. I wish she would have talked to me, but I respect that she no longer wants to speak publicly about this.
Jill: What can the story of the radical abortion rights activists who became drug smugglers(!) to get Mifepristone to America can teach us about this political moment, when Mifepristone is again under attack -- a Texas judge ruled to pull it off the market before being reversed by a higher court, in a case that is still ongoing -- and the era of legal abortion in America has ended?
T.J.: I think this story shows that activism can pay off, but it may take time. We live in an instantaneous world, but change does not happen rapidly. It takes teamwork, planning, and commitment to a cause to make real change. A lot of women and other people who can get pregnant feel pretty depressed right now. This story inspired me. The people who fought to bring mifepristone to America were facing serious odds in 1992 — a government with little regard for science, a court system stacked against them, and a violent movement hellbent on taking away abortion rights. And yet, they carried on. It took years, but they achieved their goal. I think this story shows that activism can pay off, but we need to be patient and continue to work at it.
Jill: In the podcast, you interview Randall Terry of Operation Rescue, the organization that spent years blockading clinics, circulating "wanted" posters of abortion providers (including some who were later murdered), and terrorizing clinic staff and women seeking abortions. His tactics worked -- the anti-abortion movement won, and Roe is gone. It strikes me that while Terry and other extremists are kept at a distance by more mainstream anti-abortion organizations, they wind up setting the course of the movement. I'm curious if you had this reaction too, and if so, where you think the anti-abortion movement is headed in our post-Roe era.
T.J.: I definitely had the same reaction. Randall Terry and Operation Rescue were once viewed as extreme, and fringe. Some of their ideas have gone into the mainstream. They were part of the coalition that helped push the Republican Party far to the right on abortion access. There was a time in the world where you could be a Republican and support abortion rights — something that feels like science fiction nowadays.
I think the anti-abortion movement will not stop until it institutes a nationwide ban. Randall also told me that there’s a movement afoot to overturn the Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances Act (the FACE Act), which makes it a federal crime to use force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to prevent individuals from obtaining or providing reproductive health services. He said that, now that there is no constitutional right to abortion, clinics should not be protected by federal law.
Without mifepristone, which accounts for more than half of all abortions nationwide, abortion would fully return to clinics. And without the FACE Act protecting these spaces, we could be looking at an era of mass clinic blockades and protests, like we saw in the 1990s.
Jill: Drugs that help women control their fertility, whether those are contraceptive pills or abortion pills, are among the most commonly-used medications in the world. And yet over and over again, it's been feminists -- not pharmaceutical companies -- who have midwifed these medications into being, often spending their own dollars and risking their freedom to do so (see, e.g., Margaret Sanger going to jail, and Katharine Dexter McCormick funding the development of the contraceptive pill). The Pill Plot story follows a similar path, and the pharma companies wind up looking like misogynists at worst and cowards at best. Do you think this dynamic has changed, or that there were any lessons learned here?
T.J.: I think the dynamic has changed somewhat, but not enough. Pharmaceutical companies and other corporations have become more supportive of women’s rights, but they’re still afraid of backlash, despite the fact that abortion rights are supported by a majority of Americans. Just look at Walgreens’ recent reversal when it came to mifepristone. I think it’s up to feminists, women and other people who can get pregnant to keep the pressure on. When we take our eyes off the ball, we allow others to dictate the terms of the playing field.
Jill: There are so many twists and turns to this story, and I don't want to give too much away, but can you share a few things that surprised you while reporting this out, hopefully without too many spoilers?
T.J.: I was continually surprised by all the familiar names that pop up in this story! Including (now Chief Justice) John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Jay Sekulow, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and lead attorney during his first impeachment trial.
I was also shocked to see the light sentence some anti-abortion extremists received for their crimes. One person shot an abortion provider five times, and only received a 10 year sentence — the maximum. That crimes relating to abortion access are not taken as seriously as other civil rights or hate crimes is incredibly surprising, and disheartening to me.
Thanks for reading. You can find Cover Up: The Pill Plot wherever you get your podcasts.
xx Jill