Phil Donahue, a pioneer television talk show host, has died at the age of 88. He was married to actress Marlo Thomas for 44 years. “At his peak, his nationally syndicated ‘The Phil Donahue Show’ — later renamed ‘Donahue’ — was a ratings hit and precursor to similar shows by hosts Montel Williams and Jerry Springer,” reported NBC News.
Donahue considered himself a Catholic, but was an ardent supporter of abortion. He sometimes invited guests to his show to discuss abortion; his pro-abortion bias and irritation with pro-life guests became a hallmark of these particular episodes. However, one of Donahue’s shows on the topic of abortion was particularly riveting, because he interviewed the mother of Ana Rosa Rodriguez, a little girl born without a right arm; it had been severed by a New York abortionist during an attempted late-term procedure.
Phil Donahue holds little Ana Rosa Rodriguez whose arm was severed in late abortion
Ana Rosa’s story
Ana Rosa Rodriguez survived a horrific abortion attempt, something that apparently outraged even a hardcore abortion proponent like Donahue. And yet, to be outraged at the injustice of a child born this way because of abortion should have transferred to outrage at the unjust act of abortion itself. Sadly, this was not (and is not) often the case.
In 1993, New York abortionist Dr. Abu Hayat — nicknamed the “Butcher of Avenue A” — severed the arm of little Ana Rosa while attempting an abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy, Live Action News previously documented.
According to the Daily News, Ana Rosa’s mother, Rosa Rodriguez, described being strapped in stirrups and held down by Hayat and his assistants while she begged him to stop the abortion. She testified that she no longer wanted the abortion after Hayat inserted a four-inch needle in her stomach that appeared dirty, and she began hearing women in other rooms screaming.
News report of Ana Rosa Rodriguez born alive after failed abortion
After the incident, Phil Donahue had the infant and her mother as guests on his talk show, where he described the horror of the incident. Though Hayat practiced legally, Donahue attempted to spin the story as unrelated to the abortion issue.
Yet every day, infants just as valuable as Ana Rosa are ripped apart limb by limb during abortions – but the majority are not born alive.
In the video below, Phil Donahue opens the interview by introducing baby Ana Rosa as “more famous than she ever wanted to be.” Donahue described the baby’s mother as a woman who “doesn’t speak English.”
“She went for an abortion. She thought she was three months pregnant,” he says, adding that she gave the doctor $1,000 on a $1,500 fee.
When the baby’s mom told the abortionist she could “feel the baby,” Donahue claimed “the doctor pressured her to continue with the procedure, which she did.”
That night there was a lot of pain, but according to Donahue, the abortion business told Ana Rosa’s mother that the pain was normal. Later that evening, Rodriguez went to the hospital where Ana Rosa’s life was saved, and she was delivered with her right arm missing.
“It is the allegation of Ms. Rodriguez and her attorney that the doctor was running an abortion mill without the proper equipment and not only that he violated the law by attempting to perform an abortion in the third trimester,” Donahue said. “Further, it was the allegation of this young woman that it was the botched abortion that cost this baby her arm.”
Hayat, who was committing abortions legally in New York, was found guilty of assault, and in June of 1993, was sentenced to prison. He was released on parole in 2006.
Abu Hayat nicknamed Butcher of Avenue A.
Targeting Poor, Minority Women
“Well, this baby is alive. She’s lost an arm to be sure,” Phil Donahue noted. But Ana and her mother were not Hayat’s only victims. Following the notoriety surrounding her case, additional women came forward to complain about the abortionist.
Marie Moise was sent home “midway through her abortion” because she and her husband could not come up with the additional $500 for the procedure, media outlets reported. “During the trial, the jury of nine men and three women got a rare glimpse into the underside of an abortion industry that caters to poor, minority women,” the New York Daily News reported about the trial at the time. “In 1988, three years before Hayat ripped the infant’s arm off with his filthy tools in his stinking Avenue A office, the Health Department knew plenty about him – not all, but enough.”
Hayat was discharged from parole supervision in 2009, and his sentence has been deemed completed. He tried to have his name changed, but a judge refused his request.
Butcher of Ave A baby born alive after abortion Ana Rosa Rodriguez
How Did This Happen?
“How did this happen?” asked Donahue. And yet, due to a pro-abortion bias, many in the media like Donahue fail to investigate the abortion industry. Only a handful of states require cases of abortion survivors to be documented and reported, and pro-abortion politicians have at times covered for Big Abortion by limiting those reports.
Years ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer discovered that babies were, on occasion, born alive after abortion attempts. More recently, Live Action News found 220 cases of abortion survivors reported from 1999-2023 in just eight states. Because of a lack of consistent reporting, that number is likely substantially higher.
Josiah Presley is also an abortion survivor, and like Ana Rosa, was born with most of an arm missing:
Late Abortion Statistics
The media claims that later abortions are rare. In 2021, Guttmacher estimated that 81% of abortions that year had occurred at nine weeks of pregnancy or earlier. But later abortions still occur and can be largely obtained for “any reason” despite the media claims to the contrary.
Abortion at or after 21 weeks is estimated to be about 1% of all abortions. In 2023, according to data published by Guttmacher, total abortions reached 1,037,000. This means that late abortions are not so small in number. It is estimated that 10,370 babies were killed in 2023 at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy (using 2023 Guttmacher data). That is an estimated 28 babies per day.
2024 Late Term Abortion Graph Guttmacher
Health Authorities Ignored Abortionist Red Flags
Through an interpreter, Rodriguez told Donahue that because her stomach was not getting larger, she did not realize how far along in pregnancy she was.
And amazingly, despite the severing of Ana Rosa’s arm in utero, the preborn infant did not bleed to death while in the womb. The separation was at the shoulder, according to the expert on Donahue’s show, who described it as “very mangled.”
Historically, legal abortion providers have had multiple complaints lodged against them, all while those tasked to protect women remain silent.
“This doctor was practicing medicine with a license in the State of New York, performing abortions, and the investigation… by the District Attorney’s Office in the State of New York has already disclosed 20 other complaints regarding this man, all of which date back to 1988. One of which recorded the death of a 17-year-old woman,” the attorney representing Rosa Rodriguez told Donahue, adding that only one of those many cases was “ever reported to the Department of Health.”
“Why aren’t doctors who are cleaning up these abortions reporting fellow physicians?” the attorney asked.
That question is still being asked by many who represent injured or deceased abortion clients and their families.
Ultimately, Phil Donahue — though he supported abortion — revealed the humanity of every baby targeted for abortion by telling Ana Rosa and her mother’s story. The way he cradled little Ana Rosa during his show is the way every child deserves to be comfortably cradled and welcomed.
Though he did not support every human being’s right to life, Donahue looked into the face of an abortion survivor and was moved.
