RealChoice: June 1, 1970: Psychiatrist Provides Fatal Abortion Drugs

Monday, June 01, 2026

June 1, 1970: Psychiatrist Provides Fatal Abortion Drugs

Mary Ellen

From Mary Ellen's wedding announcement

Mary Ellen Cann probably anticipated getting a fresh start in life when was granted an uncontested divorce from her husband, Ralph McCrillis on March 3, 1970 on the grounds of "treatment as seriously to injure health."

Mary Ellen was a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and a former English and remedial reading teacher at Dover High School. According to public records, Mary Ellen had been 23 years old and already working as a teacher when she married the 21-year-old machine operator in October of 1966. She was a graduate of the University of New Hampshire.

Just as Mary Ellen had no way of knowing on that October day of 1966 that her dreams of a happy marriage would fail, she had no way of knowing when she secured that divorce just over three years later that she'd have less than three months left to live.

The End Came Quickly

Mary Ellen learned that she was pregnant in May of 1970. She had conceived the baby about two weeks prior to her divorce.

Mary Ellen turned to two other women for help: a 27-year-old former art teacher named Martha Murphy, and a 48-year-old psychiatrist named Joyce E. Milllette.

According to a later charge, Dr. Millette "knowingly and willfully for the purpose of facilitating the commission of an offense, the procurement of an illegal miscarriage, gave knowledge and instruments to [Miss Cann] and a third person."

On Saturday, May 30, Mary Ellen New Hampshire, evidently took Millette's advice and used the provided drugs and instruments with the support of her former colleague.

The next evening Dr. Millette called Tri-County Osteopathic Hospital and spoke to the night supervisor. She said that she had a patient at her office who was suffering a miscarriage and needed treatment. She was told that the hospital lacked facilities to handle obstetric cases and would not be able to handle such a case on a weekend.

Mary Ellen ended up being admitted to Maine Medical Center at roughly 10 pm. She died there shortly after midnight on June 1, 1970. Her death was attributed to a uterine rupture and was referred to the state police.

The Reckoning

Dr. Joyce Millette

As a result of that investigation, both Murphy and Millette were charged with second-degree murder. The indictment said that each of the women "did commit murder in the second degree in that on May 30, 1970, she did willfully administer to a pregnant woman, one Mary Ellen Cann, without legal excuse, a substance, with intent to procure the miscarriage of said woman, therein causing the death of Mary Ellen Cann."

Millette pleaded no contest to the charge but when her attorney told the judge that she was only entering that plea because she couldn't afford to go to court, he changed the plea to not guilty.

Legal Issues

The New Hampshire Supreme Court quashed the second-degree murder indictment against Millette. According to the December 29, 1972 Battleboro Reformer, "Acting under New Hampshire Antiabortion Law, Dr. Millette was charged with second-degree murder, since the law says if a pregnant woman dies during the abortion of a live fetus (a felony) or of an unformed fetus (a misdemeanor,) 'he shall be deemed guilty of murder in the second degree and shall be punished accordingly.'" However the court said that the state would have to prove malice on Dr. Millette's part in order to warrant a murder charge.

Sources: