What I don't love, in fact, what I hate, is the refrying of the X-Case judgement. In particular Michelle Mulherin's contribution to parliamentary democracy last week, when she managed, either by design or disaster, to make the X-Case an issue of sex and morality in society. Clearly the X-Case has about as much to do with sex and morality in society as sock puppets have to do with drive-by shootings. When saying something, we must remember to to be clear. A government, Helmut Schmidt once said, cannot be built on ambiguities. And definitely not, one might add, on plain confusion. Hats off to the Dail Technical Group, who showed the cojones no government since the early 90s has been able to show in attempting to enact legislation based on a Supreme Court judgement - Government by the book according to due process as set out in the constitution.
In making this bold step, however, they have opened the door to opponents of abortion in any circumstances to reopening the debate on the X-Case. Whilst they have the mic, they'll attempt to set the reset button on society's mores using this most inappropriate of contexts, namely legislation that emanates from a rape case.
Mulherin did exactly this, whether she likes it or not. In her use of the term 'fornication' to describe sex outside of marriage, she made a judgement call on those whose behaviour differs from hers. To say, 'Hey guys, there's a real problem with the way society has not recognized the repercussions of letting people do what they like without considering the consequences', is one thing, but she didn't do that. And this wasn't the place to do what she did.
The X-Case has been characterized by its opponents as legislation proposed to let people get off the hook for being in difficulty. Unfortunately for her, this goes against what she has said about the X-Case: that is, that she's accepts the judgement.
To prove a point, here, with thanks to broadsheet.ie, below is a key excerpt from Mulherin's interview with Brendan O'Connor last night on RTE TV, just to prove the point.
Mulherin: “I accept the X case in the sense that it decided that in a situation where the mother’s life was at risk then in that limited circumstance there could be a termination.
O’Connor: “And only in that limited circumstance?”
Mulherin: “Yes.”
Nothing too nutty there. Mulherin's point about our society was indeed valid: did we allow for freedom of choice to exist without the ability to consider the consequences? Do people have an adequate sense of personal responsibility in their actions, particularly in the most intimate context possible for a person? Are the Irish now a little too flaithulach for a fling and damn the consequences? The problem is, that this wasn't what she did. She dug out her old vinyl collection and played Des Hanafin's Greatest Hits at full blast instead. Now the neighbours are complaining and we all have to go to work tomorrow.I don't mind people using religion to consider moral questions (I do, sometimes). I don't mind people being against abortion (nobody wins from it). What I object to is discourse which is ill conceived, ill expressed and ill defined; which is emotive, emotional and conducted with murky motives. Mulherin couldn't recognize the seriousness of the debate she was participating in and chose instead to use a word (fornication) which any fool can tell you has a negative connotation, to make her own point. She is a law graduate and is extremely articulate. You can't tell me she didn't realize that when choosing her words in the Dail last week, that she would cause a ruckus. Instead of raising an important issue in its own context, she made a judgement, in my view mischievously and without full respect for the debate that was at hand. And she made it when it was neither warranted nor appropriate.
It's now 20 years since the X-Case. We have not progressed one bit since then, nor have we improved the standard of debate on this or any other issue. Intelligent, mature debate on serious questions, on issues which are immediately pressing, seems as far off from being realized as the X-Case judgement will be passed into law. Instead we have been treated to this tawdry sideshow. Thanks, Shelly!
