Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh méara Phort Láirge agus a bhean chéile freisin. When the American Supreme Court ruled last Friday in the Dobbs v. Jackson case, overturning Roe v. Wade and related court decisions, I thought of a famous campaign slogan from American politics in the 1980s: "It's morning again in America." Following the darkness of almost 50 years of federally mandated abortion, which resulted in 60 million dead, it will now be possible for American states to enact laws that, it is to be hoped, will protect the lives of unborn children and their mothers. I also thought it was significant that on a weekend where many people sincerely marched to express support for inclusion and diversity that perhaps the American Supreme Court had taken the greatest step in that direction.

There are three lessons for us in Ireland. One concerns the debate about human rights. Abortion unsettles a society and the debate on it is never over. Sooner or later, the communitarian human rights vision of including everybody will prevail over an individual choice ethic. That is certainly my hope. The second lesson relates to the media. The narrative in Irish media over the weekend was amazing. There was hardly any interest in hearing the views of pro-life people as to how this American decision might change Ireland or whether it would lead to reduced numbers of abortions. It was all presented in terms of fear and negativity. I remember Congressman Richard Neal referring to America's "noisy democracy" when we met him in the Chamber a few weeks ago but it strikes me that for all its ills, when we look at the spectrum of media in America, from Fox News on one side to CNN on the other, it may not be pretty and may sometimes be very ugly but at least there is diversity. That is perhaps part of the story. We could do some with some greater media diversity in Ireland. My final point is this. Can we ever hope to arrive at some consensus in this country? Could we, for example, think about the fact that while we may have different views of Roe v. Wade or the legality of abortion, we can again get to the idea that abortions are at least regrettable and we should work together to reduce the numbers of abortions as much as possible? That would just be a first step for me. I recognise it would be the end of the journey for others but I ask that we at least restart that conversation because it has been lost in Ireland in recent times.