More than 100 lawyers said yesterday they were advocating a Yes vote in the abortion referendum.
The group, which includes the former justice minister, Mr Patrick Cooney, and a number of senior counsel, published their analysis of the main points in the referendum and circulated it at a press conference in Buswells Hotel, Dublin.
Their spokesman, author and barrister Mr Benedict Ó Floinn, said their analysis favoured a Yes vote. However, he emphasised the lawyers he represented didn't want just to advocate a Yes vote, they wished to bring clarity to many of the issues raised during the referendum debate and hoped their analysis would do this.
"Our purpose in doing this has really been to cut through some of the confusion that has been undoubtedly in the minds of the public and also some of the confusion that has been deliberately fostered in the minds of the public as to what the key issues in this referendum are," he said.
"The first key issue we have made is that if people vote Yes in this referendum then what they are voting Yes to is excluding abortion on demand. And we have also satisfied ourselves that the measure that is proposed in this referendum is directed towards safeguarding medical treatment of expectant mothers and, from a legal point of view, succeeds in doing so.
"In addition we have addressed how this referendum proposal fits into the overall constitutional framework. That is important because certain reservations have been expressed that somehow what is proposed will remove protection from the unborn at an earlier stage of its life other than implantation. We have looked at it and are satisfied that that protection isn't reduced or affected in any way. It implicitly acknowledges that unborn human life begins and is protected before implantation".
He claimed the group's legal analysis was the only one published and signed.
Mr Ó Floinn said the referendum would have no effect on the current position of the morning-after pill. He also emphasised the penalty for "abortionists" was at present much more onerous than the maximum 12-year term of imprisonment being legislated for in the referendum.
"This is not a new provision, it's an alteration of the existing provision," he said. "I agree that abortionists should be prosecuted."
Mr Cooney said concern that women could be jailed for 12 years for having an abortion was "a total red herring" because this would never happen. He had never seen a maximum penalty applied in any case.
Mr Ó Floinn also said he believed the people who were pro-life but urging a No vote were mistaken in their analysis.
Among the solicitors and barristers who subscribe to the analysis of the referendum published yesterday are men and women of various political and religious persuasions, he said.
They included Mr William Binchy, Mr Feichin McDonagh SC, Mr Shane Murphy SC, Mr Séamus O Tuathail SC, and the former European Commissioner and Minister, Mr Michael O'Kennedy SC.