The chairman of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, Mr Brian Lenihan TD, has said its approach to the Green Paper on Abortion would be for the members to decide.
The committee will have a preliminary discussion on the Green Paper when it meets on Wednesday. The 12 members, drawn from Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Progressive Democrats, are expected to prepare a work agenda for their deliberations on the document.
In its first response to the Green Paper, the anti-abortion group Youth Defence said it was "quite shocking" that the document should contain no worthwhile addition to the debate.
Mr Justin Barrett of Youth Defence said none of the seven options in the Green Paper was "adequate as not even the first option to prohibit abortion would offer a complete ban on abortion in Ireland". Youth Defence was "concerned at the make-up of the committee and worried about what they will do with the issue", he said.
Youth Defence is proposing that a subsection be added to Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution which would say "No law shall be enacted, nor shall any provision of the Constitution be interpreted, to render induced abortion, or the procurement of induced abortion, lawful in the State".
Over 700 people are expected to attend a Youth Defence conference in Dublin next weekend at which anti-abortion activists from several countries, including the United States and Germany, will speak.