Fisher tells pro-life advocate the Rosary is a weapon of violence

The debate between proponents and opponents of the legalization of abortion often becomes scandalized by overzealous overtures from both sides. And just when you thought you’ve heard it all, in comes pro-choice activist Thomas Fisher, a senator in the Guam Legislature, to make an allegation that I’m sure we haven’t heard before.

According to Sharon O’Mallan, in a heated meeting with the senator, he shouted at her and another woman, “You people holding up your rosaries in front of an abortion clinic … very intimidating and violent!”

“I was shocked, and so was the woman with me,” Ms. O’Mallan said. “We just looked at each other while he was yelling at us. I couldn’t believe he actually thought these rosaries we have are weapons. We’re peaceful in our protests.”

“Regarding the comments of Ms. O’Mallan, Senator Fisher has no comment,” the senator’s chief of staff, Lloyd Cubacub said.

The confrontation, which happened in March, may be a glimpse into the what the tenor of a public hearing may be Wednesday (today) at 2 p.m. in the Guam Congress Building’s public hearing room. That is when legislation by Mr. Fisher to put the question on whether the restrict abortion to a referendum of voters will be discussed.

That very legislation is what led Ms. O’Mallan to schedule a meeting with Mr. Fisher in March, when the senator first introduced the bill. The meeting quickly devolved, Ms. O’Mallan said.

“I said, ‘Your bill would make abortion legal up to right before the baby is born,'” Ms. O’Mallan recounted part of their argument. “He said ‘It’s the woman’s choice and none of our business,'” the woman recounted.  

“He questioned me about why I am doing this and I told him that in an abortion someone dies.   A little baby dies. I told him that this law would remove the parents’ consent rights and minors could have abortion without their knowledge. He said ‘Good, because then those parents won’t force their kids to stay pregnant.’  He said that if minors want an abortion they should be allowed to have an abortion,” she recalled.

Ms. O’Mallan said she raised several other points of view with the senator, and that he was not amenable to any of them.

Among those points were that the Guam Catholic Pro-Life Committee began offering a program for women who have gone through with abortions to avail of healing services. “He blew up here in a shouted disbelieving laugh,” she said.

Ms. O’Mallan is the chairwoman of the Guam Catholic Pro-Life Committee.