Doctors for Life anti abortion group has expressed "surprise" at the provision of an amniocentesis service at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin.
The group said in a statement that the international experience was that such testing put the unborn at greater risk of aborted.
"In every country where a non therapeutic prenatal testing service exists, it is invariably linked to eugenic abortion," the statement said.
The Nurses for Life Organisation has expressed "grave concern" at the Rotunda service. "The availability of this new facility carries no benefit whatsoever to the child as it is designed to detect abnormalities such as Down's Syndrome, spina bifida or cystic fibrosis, which cannot be treated in utero," it said in a statement.