A Legal framework should be put in place to permit abortions in exceptional cases, as "allowing the courts decide on a case-by-case approach is very wrong and must be harmful to all concerned", a Church of Ireland clergyman has said.
Canon Kenneth Kearon, a governor of the Adelaide Hospital and a lecturer in ethics at Trinity College Dublin, said the Government's inter-departmental working group on abortion should recognise the large number of women travelling to Britain to have abortions and make medical and counselling support available in Ireland.
It should also invest in reducing the number of such pregnancies through proper education and the provision of free effective contraceptive advice and practice.
Addressing the "Voices of Reason" conference at Trinity College, he said the submissions made to the working group by the Church of Ireland and Adelaide Hospital were not pro-abortion, but were "trying to face the reality of a situation which for too long we have avoided because Britain has been close enough to deal with our problems.
"The Church of Ireland has never favoured abortion and has only ever seen it as a regrettable necessity in exceptional cases. But such situations can and do arise, and we are simply being dishonest if we don't face them within this State," said Canon Kearon.
A crisis pregnancy meant a pregnancy which was a genuine medical crisis, and the vast majority of crisis pregnancies did not fall into this category. The Church of Ireland was opposed to the use of abortion in anything but serious medical crises, or cases of pregnancy after sexual assault, he said.
The Church of Ireland called for a proper definition of abortion which should avoid issues which are properly issues of contraception or responsible fertility treatments.
Ms Audrey Simpson, director of the Family Planning Association in Northern Ireland, said women from the North also had to travel to Britain for abortions, as they had not been given parity of esteem with other British citizens. They had to pay for private abortions, although other operations were available to them on the National Health Service.
"Through the last quarter of a century, legal and political systems have examined the issues surrounding abortion and amended their laws on abortion accordingly, but Northern Ireland has failed to do so," Ms Simpson told the conference.
"If we don't clarify this situation, it will continue to create an atmosphere of fear and ignore the real health needs of the women of Northern Ireland."
Last year 5,336 Irish women terminated their pregnancies in England, according to the Irish Family Planning Association. Figures for 1996 show that one in 10 Irish conceptions resulted in an abortion, rising to one in five among women under 25.
Ms Catherine Conlon, co-author of Women and Crisis Pregnancy, addressed the conference on a study in which 88 Irish women attending abortion clinics in England were interviewed. Women continuing their pregnancies and others giving their babies up for adoption were also included in the research.
Women having abortions in Britain were predominantly single, and many felt that by becoming pregnant they had let their parents down. Their work situations did not always allow for maternity leave.
"It is one of the most private, personal and loneliest decisions a woman ever makes," she said.