The Mother and Child Campaign has accused the Government of bullying the Irish people into backing the upcoming referendum.
Speaking at the launch of the group’s campaign for a "No" vote, chairperson Ms Niamh Nic Mhathúna said the Taoiseach’s threats of a liberal abortion regime if the referendum is not passed were dangerous and wrongheaded.
"For any Government to seek to coerce the Irish people into making a major constitutional change based on bullying tactics of this kind is despicable," said Ms Nic Mhathúna.
Ms Nic Mhathúna repeated the group’s main objections to the referendum, which were published two weeks ago in the Mother and Child Campaign’s position paper on the proposed 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
She said if the referendum was passed, the amendment would copperfasten the core in the "X Case" judgment by "legislating for the direct and intentional killing of unborn children, which goes far beyond necessary medical treatment to save the life of the mother".
She also said the amendment would remove "all current Constitutional and legislative protection from the unborn child prior to implantation in the womb," an action Ms Nic Mhathúna said would pave the way for "legislation promised by the Government in the area of assisted human reproduction and the artificial creation of human beings".
The group also objects to the Amendment on the grounds that it would write into the Constitution "the gross hypocrisy of banning some abortions in Ireland while promising taxpayer funding for those same abortions so long as they occur abroad".