RealChoice: September 26, 1990: Teen Killed by NAF Member "The Butcher of Avenue A"

Thursday, September 26, 2024

September 26, 1990: Teen Killed by NAF Member "The Butcher of Avenue A"

The National Abortion Federation promises the moon. Their providers are supposedly the safest in the land. In practice, they don't exactly live up to their sterling reputation. Case in point: Dr. Abu Hayat, "The Butcher of Avenue A."

NAF member Abu Hayat

Sophie McCoy, age 17, was raising a toddler son and trying to finish her studies at Clara Barton High School when she learned that she was pregnant.

On September 17, 1990, Sophie ("Patient C") went to the office of National Abortion Federation member Abu Hayat, accompanied by her mother, Carmen McCoy, and by the husband of the operator of a facility identified as "the Willoughby Avenue Clinic." Sophie had been referred to him, but medical board documents do not say by whom.

Sophie and Carmen returned to Hayat's office the next day and paid $300 for the safe, legal abortion. Sophie was given intravenous medications which put her to sleep. She was kept about four hours and discharged with another prescription for antibiotics.

That evening, Sophie was bleeding, had abdominal pain, and was having trouble breathing.

The next day, September 19, Sophie was struggling to breathe, so Carmen took her to Kings County Medical Center. Sophie was admitted reporting vaginal bleeding, chest pain, and shortness of breath. Dr. Harding, who treated her, discovered that Sophie had a perforated uterus and serious sepsis. An emergency hysterectomy was performed, but Sophie developed disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a clotting disorder) and septic shock.

Sophie died on September 26, leaving her one-year-old son motherless.

After Sophie's death, Hayat originally denied having treated her at all. But Sophie's mother identified Hayat by name and from a photograph.

While continuing to deny having treated Sophie, Hayat told one of the physicians who had tried to save her life that she had expelled a fetus at home and come to him for treatment, whereupon he'd sent her to the hospital. But Margie, an employee of his, recognized Sophie from a photo and said that Hayat had indeed treated the girl on two occasions.

Margie added that after the second visit, Sophie's mother had called, hysterical and crying. Margie further said that she had seen medical records for Sophie at the facility, and that Hayat had argued with the referring clinic about payments for Sophie's treatment.

The case was reported to the district attorney and the New York Health Department. Hayat had been the target of state investigation since 1988, but the complaints against him weren't considered to be of a serious enough nature to warrant quick action. Further investigation after Sophie's death indicated that Hayat might have been using dirty instruments when he performed Sophie's abortion, leading to the fatal infection, but nobody took any action against him until he pulled the arm off an infant during an abortion attempt in 1991.

The child, Ana Rosa Rodriguez, (pictured), was born at a nearby hospital. Her right arm was entirely absent from the shoulder.

Hayat was arrested, charged with assault and illegal third-trimester abortion, and convicted.

Watch What the National Abortion Federation Provides and The Butcher of Avenue A on YouTube.