Labour delegates called for a constitutional referendum repealing the eighth amendment providing for the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn.

A motion from Labour Women, which was passed to loud applause late on Friday night at a well attended conference session in Killarney, also advocated that the commitment be included in any programme for government negotiated by the party if it is returned to government after the next election.

Minister of State for Health Kathleen Lynch said the conference needed to be very clear about what it was saying.

There would be repeal of the eighth amendment, if Labour was in power, “to allow the democratically elected representatives of the people legislate in a way that will allow our medical profession and women to make the choices about their own health and well- being while pregnant’’.

To frequent applause, delegates strongly criticised the controversial 1983 amendment, which states: "The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right."

Chairwoman of Labour Women Sinead Ahern said the party was the first to legislate for the X case.

“While this is an important first step, there is still more to do,’’ she added.

Ms Ahern said the proposal from Labour Women was that the eighth amendment be repealed and replaced by legislation allowing for abortion “in cases of a threat to a woman’s life, a serious threat to her health, in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape and incest where that poses a threat to the woman’s mental health’’.

She said the proposals were not radical. “In fact, if such legislation was advanced, our abortion laws would remain the most restrictive in Europe,’’ she added.

She said 3,769 Irish women travelled abroad for an abortion last year.

Ms Ahern said Labour should think of what it stood for as a party.

“Are we a party that places a value on women’s lives, or a party that feels they must be at death’s door before lifesaving abortion can be offered ?,’’ she added.

Senator Ivana Bacik said the motion was asking the conference to endorse the report of the Labour Women's commission on the issue.

“That commission was established to determine how best to achieve the repeal of the eighth amendment and, importantly, what it was proposed to replace it with,’’ she added.

Ms Bacik said that for 32 years, “that amendment has blighted countless lives’’, adding 150,000 women had to travel for abortion during that time.

“There are also many others for whom untold suffering and trauma has been caused,’’ she said.

Ms Bacik said it was not a radical motion, building on existing Labour policy and putting substance on it. Public opinion was ahead of politicians on the issue, she added.

Killian Murphy, Trinity College Labour, said he was aware, as a man, he could only have limited experience of the issues involved.

He said he wanted to point out “the injustice of a State which refuses women terminations when they need them and forces them to travel to England’’.

Mr Murphy said the eighth amendment, as it stood, was deeply unjust and had never been realistic.