Fine Gael Oireachtas members opposed to abortion should have the same conscience rights as those who opposed the party’s stance on hare coursing in the 1990s, a TD has said.

Brian Walsh, TD for Galway West, has already declared that he will be voting against the Government’s abortion legislation, and called for Taoiseach Enda Kenny to allow TDs a free vote.

And he said a precedent was set in 1993 when the now Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and others were allowed to remain in the parliamentary party after supporting a Bill to ban hare coursing, which was opposed by Fine Gael, the Irish Times reports.

“Regrettably, it appears that Fine Gael will accommodate a vote of conscience on legislation concerning the welfare of hares but may not on legislation concerning the welfare of women and children,” wrote Mr Walsh in an email to TDs and Senators yesterday.

“I believe members who oppose the legislation should not be penalised with expulsion from the party,” he added.

Mr Kenny has repeatedly said there would be no free vote. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Michael Noonan reiterated this stance, claiming there would be “very few” Fine Gael members opposed to the legislation.

According to some estimates, as many as 10 Fine Gael TDs may end up voting against the Bill and losing the whip.  

Meanwhile, the Pro Life Campaign has said that legislation which provides for abortion on the basis of suicidal ideation “can never be restrictive”.

In a briefing document published this week, they described the Government’s Bill as “dangerous, unjust and irretrievably flawed”.

And they warned that the lesson from other countries which introduced similar laws on the basis that they were restrictive was “that they inevitably led to wide-ranging abortion”.  

The document says: “Abortion on the basis of suicidal ideation can never be restrictive. Psychiatrists would be put in an impossible situation where they cannot refuse abortion at any stage, because there is no way of predicting whether the woman will carry out her threat.

“Under the proposed new law, for an abortion to be approved on the basis of a threat of suicide it will require two psychiatrists and an obstetrician to sign off on it.  

“In reality, however, it will be the two psychiatrists who make the final decision. If they are in agreement, the obstetrician’s opinion will be redundant.  

“We have seen how the requirement to have the signatures of two doctors in the UK has been widely abused, to the point where they have an abortion on demand regime.

“There is nothing in the Bill to prevent psychiatrists who view abortion as harmless from seeking like-minded colleagues to affirm the certification for an abortion.”