Doctors concerned at the Government’s plans for a GP-led abortion regime seem set to secure an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) to change the organisation’s policy on abortion. It is understood that the ICGP has now received 600 signatures, amounting to about 20pc of members in good standing.

Doctors seeking the meeting want it to consider motions which, among others, would state that “routine general practice was not the appropriate setting in which to deliver an abortion service and consider a clinical setting, external to general practice, more appropriate for the provision of abortion services”.

They also want the ICGP to adopt a policy to favour “an opt-in system whereby GPs who wish to deliver abortion services receive adequate training, are sustained in their competence and can be subject to audit in keeping with international standards of governance”.

They also want a motion passed under which the ICGP would “agree unequivocally to support the right of all doctors to the effective exercise of freedom of conscience, within the professional context, with regards to abortion including no obligation to refer patients for termination of pregnancy”.