However, the following opinion is totally unrelated to the reaction of the above mentioned pro-abortion mob: I do not believe in publicly protesting for the pro-life cause with a rosary in my hand. Not only do pro-abortionists use such occasions and pictures of such occasions to propagandize Americans that pro-life is an issue important only to Catholics, I believe it truly alienates other pro-lifers (even other Catholics) and nonreligious alike from participating in pro-life events and fails to persuade moderates to the legitimacy of the pro-life cause.
Therefore, as a Catholic and a sometime pragmatist, I would prefer attending mass and saying the rosary as a group with other pro-life activist Catholics before the protest or pro-life activist event.
Your observation on the rosary in public could be construed as you say it; however, Our Blessed Mother herself, has said in numerous apparations sanctioned by the church, that we should publicaly carry and display our rosaries always. I trust Mary's petition more than man's logic. I proudly carry my rosary and pray it daily. I leave it on my desk in the open at work, have it in my hands always during mass and it is never not in my pocket otherwise. This give glory to God the Father.
God's law and the truth must be publicly witnessed. We cannot shrink from our duty to let sinners know their ways are not those of God's or ours. The rosary, signs, pictures or passages of scripture are all appropriate. Those that are open to the message do not discriminate between Catholic or Protestant or Jewish belief in life.