Ana Rosa Rodriguez

Survivor #2 : Ana Rosa Rodriguez

Survived Abortion : 1991

Place : New York, USA

Injuries : Right Arm Severed

Ana Rosa's Story 

Ana Rosa Rodriguez was a 32-week-old fetus when her mother, Rosa, went to the New York City abortion chamber of Doctor Abu Hayat, the notorious "Butcher of Avenue A" in 1991. Even though abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy are illegal under New York law, this was going to be just another of the thousands of routine, late-term abortions performed annually in the state. According to Rosa, who was then 20 years old, she told Hayat that she had changed her mind and didn't want to go through with the abortion. "He said that it was impossible to stop, that I had to continue," she told New York Newsday.

According to Rosa, Hayat's assistants held her down while he sedated her. When she awoke, she was told that the abortion was incomplete and that she should come back the following day. That evening, however, she experienced increasing pain and bleeding. Her mother took her to Jamaica Hospital by taxi, where, five hours later, Baby Ana Rosa was born. But Hayat had left his mark upon her; Ana Rosa's tiny right arm had been torn off in the brutal abortion attempt. Ana Rosa has disappeared from public view, but when last reported, in 1996, she was a perfectly healthy, beautiful, little girl, aside from the abortionist's stigmata, which she will always bear.