Abortionist Betty Eason ran a clinic that was cited for multiple violations over the years. The clinic injured a number of women, killed at least one, and harbored a sex offender who molested patients. The head of the Department of Health and Human Services was quoted saying “This clinic is the closest thing to a back-alley abortion mill that you can find, considering that abortion is legal.”
Betty Eason ran the Dadeland abortion mill with her 18- and 21-year-old granddaughters while her daughter Susan Eason Hoffman and son Marc Eason were incarcerated. The Dadeland abortion mill operated under many different names, so it could have as many entries as possible in the Yellow Pages, in order to bring in more abortion customers. Its names included;
– Abortion Access Center;
– Abortion Clinic-Hospital Center;
– Abortion Counseling Center;
– Abortion Information Center;
– Adoption Counseling Association;
– Birth Control Information;
– Dade County Abortion;
– Dadeland Abortion;
– Dadeland Women’s Medical Center;
– Eason’s Abortion Access Center;
– Florida Abortion;
– Florida Family Planning;
– Medical Center;
– Planned Population;
– Women’s Center of Dade;
– Women’s Referral Group; and
– Women’s Crisis Center.
Before Roe v. Wade, Betty Eason had been using the names “Planned Parenthood of Oakland County” in Michigan and “Planned Parenthood of Greater Miami,” in order to sell abortions in New York State. She had been doing this without the permission of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which sued her.
Betty Eason used to tell patients things like “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.”
She claimed that she went into the abortion business because “Someone very close to me nearly died in an illegal abortion in Mexico. Also, I saw a black woman in a New York hospital nearly bleed to death after she had an abortion with a coat hanger. I’m pro-choice. That’s what gets me up in the morning.”
It would seem that Betty cared about the health of women, but that was only for public consumption. The reality of Dadeland was far different from the hype. Abortionist Richard Litt, who performed abortions at Dadeland until 1981, said that the abortion mill “is a scum hole. I wouldn’t send a dog there. They should be put in jail.”
An investigative report by the Miami Herald in the September 17, 1989 edition of its Sunday supplement Tropic found disgusting and outright dangerous conditions at the Dadeland abortion mill, including;
– reusing disposable instruments;
– doctors leaving the facility while abortion patients were still in recovery;
– stirrups on the procedure tables were covered with blood;
– oxygen mask had lipstick on it from the previous patient;
– no nurses on staff; and that
– “patient recovery was monitored by employees with no formal health-care training.”
On March 2, 1985, Dadeland abortionist Chatoor Bisal Singh aborted Ellen Lorena Williams. Her perforated her uterus and bowel, causing a fatal case of peritonitis that killed her three days later. Abortionist Robert Kast had also botched at least five other abortions at Dadeland.
Another abortionist who worked at Dadeland was Nabil Ghali, who was sentenced to six months in prison for 47 counts of felonious sexual penetration and 29 counts of gross sexual imposition involving 25 of his female patients. He performed abortions despite having his license revoked for lying on his application for a medical license and for concealing an earlier conviction for molesting his 14-year old goddaughter. Ghali lost his license to practice medicine in Kentucky after numerous lawsuits were filed against him for medical malpractice (including killing a woman) and sexual abuse of patients, including children, and moved on to do abortions in Florida, and then Ohio, where he racked up similar records. Among the numerous lawsuits against Ghali for botched abortions was one by a woman who had her bladder removed without her permission.
Betty’s son, Marc Eason, was a vocal pro-abortionist who worked at the Dadeland abortion clinic. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the ax-murders of his roommates. Eason said the murders were “justifiable homicide” because the roommates had “complained about his sloppiness.” He also stabbed his mother, abortionist Betty Eason, in the neck with a steak knife, saying she deserved it for having poisoned his father (who died of a heart attack) in 1969.
Susan Eason Hoffman, “clinic president” of Dadeland, was convicted on 11 charges, from possession of cocaine to leaving the scene of an accident, and had 32 traffic convictions for speeding and reckless driving.
Despite all the botched abortions and the filthiness of the place, pro-abortionists staunchly defended the Dadeland abortion mill. For example, Janis Compton-Carr said that “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.”
Like with Al Capone, what finally brought the deadly Dadeland abortion mill to a stop was the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS closed down Dadeland for unpaid taxes, but Betty Eason bought the assets and reopened the mill as the “Women’s Service Center” just a month later. She hired two abortionists in need of quick cash, Steve Silvers and Scott Duncan.
A subsequent investigation by the State Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS), Office of Licensure and Certification, revealed that the abortion mill and the Easons were still ignoring the rules designed to safeguard the health of women. The investigation found;
– one physician operating without a medical license;
– no registered nurses or licensed practical nurses on staff;
– unlicensed staff were performing patient care;
– a ninth-grade dropout was prepping patients, prepping and sterilizing equipment, assisting during abortions, packaging fetal remains for pathology tests using a blood-contaminated kitchen strainer, and dispensed and administered medications;
– another unlicensed employee monitored the patients in the recovery room;
– laboratory tests were performed on-site by unlicensed personnel;
– medications were being stored with soft drinks;
– syringes of lidocaine and other medications were improperly stored;
– medications had passed their expiration dates;
– inaccurate records of dispensed medications;
– some medications were unlabeled or mislabeled;
– single-use equipment was being reused to save money;
– paper used to wrap instruments for sterilization was repeatedly reused until it was bloody or ripped;
– the vacuum machine used to do abortions had residue in it, and staff were unable to report when it had last been cleaned and sanitized;
– another vacuum machine appeared to contain tissues from the last abortion performed with it;
– the clinic had no policy and procedures for patient confidentiality;
– no follow-up was done on patients with incomplete abortions and ectopic pregnancies;
– oxygen tanks were leaking and improperly stored; and
– pregnancy was not definitively determined prior to proceeding with abortions.
One of the inspectors from Health and Rehabilitative Services told the Miami Herald that “It was 10 times, 100 times worse than I thought it would be. As a nurse, I was appalled.” The head of the organization said that “This clinic is the closest thing to a back-alley abortion mill that you can find, considering that abortion is legal.”
References: Miami Herald, September 17, 1989, September 26, 1989, September 28, 1989, September 30, 1989, and January 4, 1990; The News Herald, September 26, 1989; Associated Press, September 25, 1989; Kentucky Medical Licensing Board case #190, State Medical Board of Ohio vs. Ghali, Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services inspection reports (1989), The Miami Herald Tropic Magazine, September 17, 1989; Dade County Case #88-19636; Department of Professional Regulation Case #0057913; The Cleveland Free Times, January 20-26, 1993; Kentucky Post, October 21 and November 9 and 11, 1982; Kentucky Enquirer, November 9 and 11, 1982 and January 13, 1983; Cincinnati Enquirer, November 2, 1982; Miami Herald, May 7 and 8, 1988, September 28, 1989, and January 4, 1990; “Abortionist Ghali Gets Jail in Sex Abuse Case.” Life Advocate, March 1997, page 10; and Paul Likoudis. “Investigators Cast a Wide Net To Find Abortionist’s Murderer.” The Wanderer, December 10, 1998, pages 1 and 10; Christina Dunigan. “Back Alley Butchers vs Main Street Maimers.” Dateline, September 1, 2000.
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