Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín will not support an ardfheis motion on allowing abortion in fatal foetal abnormality cases which is strongly backed by the party leadership.
Mr Tóibín, who was disciplined for failing to vote with his party in favour of proposed X case legislation in 2012, told The Irish Times he was opposed to the proposal coming before the ard fheis this week.
“I would object to seeing it pass because I think children with a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality should have an equal right to life as everyone else,” he said.
Earlier, Deputy leader Mary-Lou McDonald said she was “very strongly recommending” her party’s ardfheis this week backs the motion to address what she described as a “policy gap”.
A motion from the James Connolly cumann in Ballyfermot, Dublin, calls for legal frameworks to be introduced in the Republic and Northern Ireland to allow women access abortion services "under these limited circumstances", referring to fatal foetal abnormality.
Launching her party’s clár for the event in Derry on Friday and Saturday, Ms McDonald referred to Sinn Féin’s recent abstention in the vote on Independent Socialist Clare Daly’s defeated Bill to permit abortion in such cases.
Ms McDonald said: ”I am personally very, very keen to see that motion accepted by the ardfheis. I thought it was most unfortunate that we had that policy gap and I’m personally extremely anxious for that matter to be resolved.”
She said Mr Tóibín would have the opportunity to give his views and would “like the rest of us, be bound by the decision of the ard fheis”.
Ms McDonald said the ardfheis was over-subscribed and said more than 2,000 delegates were expected.
Guests from the Greek governing party Syriza will attend, as will the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland Ahmad Abdelrazek. Labour Party
Ms McDonald said many delegates at the ardfheis would say the Labour Party “is no longer a left-wing party”.
She said she could not foresee a Sinn Féin coalition with the Labour Party “on its current trajectory and current frame of mind”.
"At the end of the day the people will adjudicate the Labour Party's performance and whether or not they did in fact put a stop to Enda Kenny or whether in fact they became collaborators and facilitators of a Fine Gael agenda that has been very, very damaging to the communities and families that we represent."
Sinn Féin was “a party to the left, of the left”, Ms McDonald said.
Ms McDonald said water charges and the economy would be among the issues that would “loom large” at the event.
One motion in the policing and justice section of the clár “deplores and condemns the actions of some members of An Garda Síochana in their actions against our citizens”, while another “calls for policing through political motives to come to a complete end”.
A motion from a Tipperary cumann says the tricolour should be “shown due respect and not be thrown around by the party’s elected representatives and their supporters”.
Another calls for the cultivation, sale and possession of cannabis to be legalised in Ireland. The new postal code system is described as a “waste of money” in a motion in the section on political reform.
