The Catholic bishops are set to challenge the Government’s abortion legislation if it is enacted, it has been confirmed.

Yesterday, the bishops published a briefing document which said that the Bill did not vindicate the equal right to life of the unborn which “provides grounds for a viable challenge to the Constitutionality of the Bill”.

And a spokesman for the bishops has confirmed that would challenge the legislation in the Supreme Court in the event of it passing into law, the Irish Independent reports.

The bishops plan to mount the challenge claiming the bill’s unconstitutional legislative process or its failure to adequately vindicate the equal right to life of the unborn.

Martin Long, of the Catholic Communications Office, said the bishops would await the outcome of the final vote before making a decision.

They will then see whether President Michael D Higgins consults the Council of State and refers the bill to the Supreme Court to determine its constitutionality. If it does not happen, the bishops will move ahead with their challenge, he says.

However, the bill will still become law in the meantime.

The briefing document, intended for TDs and Senators, said that the proposed legislation would “fundamentally alter the culture and practice of medical care in Ireland” and accepted the premise that abortion was “an appropriate response to suicidal ideation” despite medical evidence to the contrary.

The bishops also warned that the Bill, the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, created “serious moral, legal and constitutional conflicts in the area of freedom of conscience and religious belief”.

The document said: “The failure of this Bill to adequately vindicate the equal right to life of the unborn, in so many respects, provides grounds for a viable challenge to the Constitutionality of the Bill itself and that this ought to be pursued.”

At the weekend, the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, confirmed that the Catholic Church in Ireland might consider making a Constitutional challenge to the Bill if it were passed.

Speaking outside St Peter’s Church in Drogheda following a Mass to honour St Oliver Plunkett, Cardinal Brady said: “There are various ways to challenge but those are for the lawyers to work out and we have to see what the final vote outcome is.”

He said that even if the legislation is passed, the church may back efforts to pursue other options.

The document said that the legislation laid out “a wide and at times subjective interpretation of the risk to the life of the mother, by which the life of an unborn child can be ended”.

The legislation changed the circumstances under which a termination could occur, the briefing document said. Quoting the explanatory memorandum of the Bill, the document said that ‘a real and substantial’ risk to the life of the mother, “does not need to be immediate nor inevitable”.

The document went on to warn: “This means that a risk which is ‘remote’ or ‘avoidable’ could trigger the death of an innocent and voiceless child in the womb.”

It also pointed out that, while the Bill provided mechanisms of appeal for a mother to vindicate her right to life “it provides no mechanism of defence or appeal for the unborn”.

It said: “Taken together, these aspects of the Bill mean that in practice the right to life of the unborn child is no longer treated as equal to that of the mother.

“This represents a fundamental shift in current medical culture and practice in Irish hospitals, which to date have provided some of the safest places in the world for a mother and her unborn child during pregnancy precisely because they were treated as two patients with an equal right to life.”

It also pointed out that the Bill’s provision for abortion as a treatment for suicidal ideation or suicidal intent was “contrary to substantial medical evidence”.

Meanwhile Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that the legislation will not be amended to remove the clause which allows abortions to be carried out to treat women who are pregnant and suicidal.

Speaking in Wexford, he said the Government was not prepared to modify the suicide clause in the Bill which will be voted on in the Dáil tomorrow night.

Mr Kenny said yesterday the Government could not “unpick” the Supreme Court decision in the X case that related to suicide ideation because to do so would be unconstitutional.

“We are very clear here that the issue of suicidal intent is an issue that was dealt with by the Supreme Court decision. We as a Government are not able to unpick that decision. Therefore to attempt to do so would render any Bill unconstitutional,” he said.

His remarks come after a number of Fine Gael TDs and Senators indicated that they would vote against the Bill if it contained this clause. A number of other TDs, including John Paul Phelan, Michelle Mulherin, John O’Mahony and James Bannon, are believed to be on the verge of voting against the legislation if the suicide clause is retained.