March 6: Ellen Williams

"Don't go out and put yourself in the hands of quacks, dear. There are plenty of places that don't care about women like we do."Betty EasonOwner, Dadeland Family Planning

Ellen Lorena Williams, age 38, was as a personnel manager for the Dade County, Florida school board when she learned that she was pregnant in early 1995. A married woman living in Richmond Heights, Ellen had a 10-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter and didn't want any more children. She opted for an abortion.

Chatoor Bisal Singh performed Ellen's abortion at Dadeland Family Planning in Miami on March 2. Since Ellen was a big woman, 6 feet tall and weighing nearly 300 pounds, Singh had used an ultrasound to estimate Ellen's pregnancy at 13 weeks.

On March 4, Ellen returned with her husband, Walter, doubled over and rocking back and forth in pain. Betty Eason gave her some tea, settled her in a Naugahyde lounge chair, covered her with a blanket, then called Singh, who arrived four hours later.

Singh examined Ellen, then turned her over to Nabil Ghali, who performed a second D&C and sent Ellen home with a bottle of antibiotics. Eason had taken a blood sample from Ellen, but the laboratory was unable to do a culture on it because Eason had used a contaminated container.

At 3:48 p.m. on March 5, Ellen was rushed by ambulance to Coral Reef Hospital. On arrival she was in pain and suffering from a fever of 105 degrees. She was rushed into surgery. She died in the intensive care unit at 10:25 a.m. on March 6. The autopsy revealed that she had uterine and bowel perforations, causing the peritonitis that killed her. Like a disproportionate number of women who die from purportedly safe and legal abortions, Ellen was Black.

Singh told the Miami Herald that he didn't usually work at Dadeland, but was "strapped for cash" and agreed to fill in for Robert Kast while he was away. Singh described himself as "not an abortionist, just an honest, easygoing guy looking for something temporary.

After Ellen's death, Singh quit working at Dadeland, saying, "It was a bad month." It certainly was: the same day he'd performed the first abortion on Ellen Williams, Singh also did an abortion on a woman identified as "Patricia W.," who afterward hemorrhaged and passed a portion of her fetus, which Singh had failed to remove. When she returned with it to the clinic, staff told her it was "a blood clot," but a hospital later verified that it was a 16-week fetal head.

"I freaked out, I didn't know what to do," Patricia told the Miami Herald. "I could see the eyes, and the arms and legs."

As for the abortion-rights movement, did they demand better for women like Patricia and Ellen? To the contrary. When the state legislature moved to try to beef up standards for abortion clinics, clinic owners banded together and formed the Florida Abortion Council. Backed by the strength of the prochoice lobby, they were able to block efforts to address seedy abortion clinics. As Florida Abortion Council head Janis Compton-Carr put it, "In my gut, I am completely aghast at what goes on at that place. But I staunchly oppose anything that would correct this situation in law."

Watch Precursor to Gosnell on YouTube.

Newly added sources:

• "Doctor accused of malpractice in fatal abortion," The Miami Herald, September 6, 1985
• "Do Not Enter," Miami Herald Tropic, September 17, 1989 (image 1, image 2, image 3)