“I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt,” said the educational speaker who is a member of Toronto Right to Life. “I thought that I would have the abortion (and) that it would be over but there was this intense guilt, shame, remorse and secrecy. Part of my healing process has been the healing in the revealing.”
On May 10 Fisher spoke to a Grade 10 class at Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School capping off Catholic Education Week and jumpstarting Respect for Life Week, which officially began May 12. During the week she was scheduled to speak at a number of Toronto schools, including Blessed Cardinal Newman, St. Joseph’s Catholic School and Fr. Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School, along with St. Theresa of Lisieux Catholic High School in Thornhill, Ont.
Fisher shared the facts surrounding Canada’s lack of abortion laws and her personal story of having an abortion which was followed by nine years of emotional distress-induced alcoholism.
Currently Canada has no laws which directly regulate abortion, although some provinces such as Prince Edward Island have chosen to not fund private clinics. This means expecting mothers can legally obtain an abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy provided a doctor agrees to perform the procedure.
That’s something which seemed to surprise the entire class, including teacher Kathleen Dillon.
“I had no idea that up to nine months a child could be aborted,” she said. “That was shocking to me.”
Tamara Laxamana, a 15-year-old student, was not only shocked but had her entire perception of an abortion turned upside down.
“I thought that it just disappears,” said the Grade 10 student. “But they pulled it out of your system and throw it away like it’s some piece of garbage and it really made me feel not nice. It really surprised me because I didn’t realize how people abort their babies like that and how many there are.”
According to Fisher, since the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the laws surrounding abortions in the 1988 Morgentaler decision, more than three million pregnancies have been terminated in Canada.
To Fisher’s regret she’s contributed to that figure once but now uses her story to help sway others towards the pro-life movement.
“Hopefully they will never choose abortion going forward,” said Fisher. “Catholicism teaches that every human life has value from the moment of conception to the point of natural death. This is a spiritual battle.”