A rise in the number of Irish women travelling to Britain for abortions is predicted after the British government unveiled plans to widen the availability of drug- induced terminations.
Pro-life campaigners warned that moves to allow family-planning clinics to offer the so-called "abortion pill", previously only obtainable from hospitals and day care centres, would encourage more Irish women to seek "fast- track" terminations.
Doctors for Life said medical abortions were less expensive, more convenient and more anonymous than conventional terminations.
The Mother and Child campaign said the method had been proved to carry long-term risks to the health of the mother. A spokesman for the organisation, Mr Justin Barrett, claimed many British family-planning centres were "ideologically committed" to abortion and would actively encourage women to end pregnancy.
Britain's Pro-Life Alliance accused the British government of "cost-cutting" and being "obsessed" with abortion.
The Department of Health in Britain said the move was intended to eliminate the wide variations in waiting times for abortions, which can range from two weeks in some areas to around six to eight weeks elsewhere.
A medical termination avoids the need for surgery and involves the woman taking two doses of separate drugs which induce a miscarriage. Mr Barrett described the method as "fast-track" abortion.
He said: "It makes abortion more convenient. Women will be encouraged to travel to Britain in greater numbers."
Doctors for Life spokeswoman, Dr Orla Halpenny, said: "The so- called medical abortion is more convenient, less expensive and more anonymous. Statistics will be less readily available. It is going to be difficult to judge how many more women travel to Britain."
Ms Josephine Quintavalle, of the Pro-Life Alliance, said: "You save a lot of money by not using anaesthetics. It is quicker, easier and cheaper. I would put cheaper in very big capitals. This move is irresponsible and short-term."
But a British Department of Health spokesman said: "This is not about cost-cutting. Using the medical abortion just means people do not have to have surgery. "
Ms Quintavalle said abortion would soon move from family- planning clinics to GPs, gradually becoming easier and easier until it became "impossible to keep track" of the situation.
She said the "DIY" method, which induces an abortion, could be dangerous for teenage girls.
She added: "These are not drugs for children. There is the potential for danger particularly in the developing body. The idea of younger girls using this is unbelievable."
Ms Nuala Scarisbrick, of Life, a pro-life charity in Britain, said: "Women's bodies seem to be targeted at every stage by a government which seems to be obsessed with abortion, more so than any other government in the past 30 years."
An estimated 5,000 Irish women obtain abortions in Britain each year. The Irish Family Planning Association could not be contacted for comment.