Monday 26 November 2012

FAILS: UNBORN VICTIM OF VIOLENCE ACT



November 26, 2012


Dear Friends of the Unborn:

This is a photo of Tracy Marciniak holding the body of her son, Zachariah. Marciniak was assaulted in her ninth month of pregnancy. She was seriously injured and Zachariah was killed.

Guam's Bill 409-31 would have given mothers like Tracy the right to hold perpetrators criminally liable for crimes of violence in which the unborn child is harmed or killed.

However, yesterday, 7 senators voted against the mother's right to do so. Their names are:

Tom Ada
Rory Respicio
B.J. Cruz
Judy Guthertz
Judi Won Pat
Aline Yamashita
Sam Mabini

NEVER FORGET THOSE NAMES! By voting NO these senators voted to allow perpetrators to punch, kick, beat, and otherwise harm or destroy a child in the womb without impunity. 

While the mother (if she survives) can seek criminal damages for an attack on her own person, these senators voted against her right to pursue criminal charges against an attacker who harms or kills her unborn child. What a sad commentary on the culture of Guam and the level to which it has sunk.

36 states have an UNBORN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE law and a federal version was passed in 2004. Even California, the most left, liberal, pro-abortion state in the union has such a law, and in fact supplied the case (Laci & Conner Peterson) which provided the basis for the federal law. 

But Guam? How dare we even hope that an unborn child and her mother be given even a sliver of such protections. What a very sick and sad place Guam has become, a place where we put to death a child every day and protect criminals and dogs more than unborn children and their mothers.

This morning I called up K57 to straighten out an error in the news report which wrongly quoted Senator Blas, the sponsor of the bill. Blas had ONLY said that the bill "had nothing to do with abortion" and he is correct. In fact the bill contained a provision which excluded abortion from its application:

Section 17.20. Application. This Chapter shall not apply to acts which cause bodily harm to an unborn child if those acts were committed during any abortion, as defined in the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2008, as amended, to which the pregnant woman has consented. 

However, the news consistently reported that Blas had said that his bill was not a "gateway to abolish abortion law on Guam." Blas did not say that. And, as anybody with a clue knows, abortion (unfortunately) is a constitutional right as per Roe v Wade and NO LAW is needed to make it legal. And even if there was a law, no law we could pass could ever "abolish" it because it Roe v Wade would first have to be overturned by the Supreme Court. 

I also noted that Bill 409 proposed nothing new to Guam law in defining the unborn child as a person, that such a definition was already present in Guam law, and that the bill simply criminalized acts of violence against the unborn child.

Bank of Guam president, Lou Leon Guerrero, a vociferous and fierce supporter of abortion on Guam, immediately followed me on K57 and once again demonstratedmonstrous ignorance. After expressing her glee that the bill did not pass, she said that I was wrong and that there was no provision in Guam law which defined an unborn child as a person. How sad that a former senator can so easily publicly demonstrate ignorance of Guam law.  See the following:

Title 19GCA § 1104. Unborn Child. A child conceived, but not yet born, is to be deemed an existing person, so far  
as may be necessary for its interests in the event of its subsequent birth.
 

Ms. Leon Guerrero is either radically lying or demonstrating an ignorance that should give the citizens of Guam great pause, and maybe even rethink where they put their money. She is welcome to her pro-abortion views, but she is not welcome to make up Guam law to her own ends.
 
But the plot thickens!

According to Sen. Yamashita on Patti Arroyo's show, certain members of the Legislature received an email from Phil Tydinco of the AG's office which was critical of the bill's ability to comport with Guam law. As of this moment, we do not have a copy of Tydingco's email, but if what Yamashita said is true, we now have to question the competence and credibility of the AG's office:

1. The email from the AG was alleged to have shown up only on the day of the vote, and appears to have been sent privately to only some senators. The AG works for the people of Guam and an opinion affecting legislation should be available for public examination.

2. We were advised that the AG's office worked with two attorneys to amend the original bill so that it would comport with Guam law. We confirmed with both Senator Palacios, the committee chair, and Senator Blas, the author, that the version of the bill which went before the Legislature for a vote was the bill as amended with the assistance of the AG.

3. So if what Yamashita says is true, the AG weighed in at the 11th hours against the bill that their own office had helped to rewrite. This is either an example of gross incompetence or more subterfuge, something we have come to expect whenever the life of the unborn child is in the balance.
 
In the end, a NO vote on Bill 409 does nothing to hurt an already dead child but does everything to prevent a woman from suing for damages or holding the person who assaulted her liable for murder in the case of the death of her child. It is women who are harmed here, women like Tracy Marciniak.
 
Well, Merry Christmas Guam.  Oh, and don't forget December 28 - the day we commemorate Herod's slaughter of the Holy Innocents. We're doing a much better job than Herod ever dreamed of doing.

 
 
 
Tim Rohr
The Esperansa Project

See Committee Report here. 
 
If you wish to express your opinions to the Legislature, copy and paste these emails addresses to your [To] box and let them, all of them, know what you think.

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