THE Pro Life Campaign has expressed concern that a new service in Dublin's Rotunda Hospital to detect congenital abnormalities such as Down's Syndrome in unborn children could lead to more abortions.
The organisation called on the hospital to explain the necessity for such a service.
However, the Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Dr Peter McKenna, said last night it was not on a "hunt and destroy mission" but was seeking to give reassurance to women who got pregnant in later life.
At the moment, according to Dr McKenna, several hundred women who become pregnant at the age of 40 or over have been travelling to Belfast for the scanning service known as amniocentesis. This service will now be provided in Dublin at the Rotunda.
It involves puncturing the uterus to obtain a sample of amniotic fluid which is tested to determine whether the unborn baby has congenital abnormalities.
Dr McKenna added that he understood the concerns of the Pro Life Campaign and that the issues involved deserved forth right discussion. However, he did not agree that the new service would lead to more abortions. On the contrary, he said, fewer women would opt for a discontinuation of pregnancy when they could be satisfied that their child, would not be born abnormal.
In a statement, the Pro Life Campaign claimed that the procedure was recognised worldwide as being associated with eugenic abortion, which it describes as "the weeding out of so called defective human beings before, "birth".