The All-Party Committee on the Constitution has failed to reach a consensus on the abortion issue.
The three main parties are proposing different approaches to abortion in the long-awaited report, which will be finalised next week, The Irish Times has learned.
It is understood that the Government, including the Progressive Democrats, is prepared to proceed with the Fianna Fail approach of introducing legislation providing for abortion in the circumstances of the X case but excluding the risk of suicide. This proposal would be put to the people in a referendum.
A strategy to leave the law on abortion unchanged and to launch a u£50 million plan to set up a State agency to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies is being proposed by Fine Gael members, led by Mr Jim O'Keeffe, in the latest draft.
The Labour Party advocates legislation to provide for abortion in accordance with the Supreme Court judgment in the X case. This would permit abortion where there is a real and substantial threat to the life of the mother, including the risk of suicide.
The approach by Fianna Fail members proposes a referendum on legislation. This option, the one that will be adopted by the Government, proposes legislation to give a defence to a doctor carrying out essential medical treatment to protect the life of a mother in a public hospital. A defence based on risk of suicide would not be allowed.
The All-Party Committee on the Constitution, chaired by Fianna Fail TD Mr Brian Lenihan, meets next Wednesday to complete its final draft of the report, which has been rewritten several times in the past few weeks.
Fine Gael states that previous experience shows that campaigns to amend the law on abortion have been divisive. It says there is no reason to think that any future amendments would not be equally divisive and there was no guarantee that at the end of the campaign any proposed amendment would be approved.
The referendum proposed by Fianna Fail would not differ significantly from the substance of the approach taken by the Government in the 1992 referendum, which was defeated by 65 per cent to 35 per cent.
The crisis pregnancy campaign would be run by a new agency established under the aegis of the Department of Health. The agency would be headed by a director general with a director in charge of preventive measures, a crisis pregnancy director and a post-abortion director.