Ireland will 'eventually come back' and scrap its abortion laws, the Primate of All Ireland has claimed.
Archbishop Eamon Martin has said he believes safe zones around clinics offering abortion services will 'further silence the voice of the innocent unborn'.
The Safe Access Zones Bill 2023 seeks to protect facilities which provide abortion services and ban video recordings and images from being taken.
The bill passed through the Dáil last month and is moving into the Seanad.
Archbishop Martin told Newstalk Breakfast there should be more debate.
"We're concerned really that all of this is happening without much of a public debate," he said.
He also claimed that the number of abortions in Ireland "seems to be spiralling out of control."
"This year they're expecting, possibly, 10,000 abortions," he claimed.
"We were told during the referendum campaign [that] abortion would be rare.
"We would see this particular legislation as further demonising anybody who holds the view that we actually have two lives here, two lives worthy of protection and help, even at the very last moment."
'Ireland will come back'
Archbishop Martin claimed the new laws would stop people - "even somebody's mother, for example" - who want to go and talk to women accessing abortion services.
"Just because we had the abortion referendum does not make it right to take away the life of an unborn child," he said.
"The abortion referendum took place but the debate continues; the right to life can't be taken away by any unjust law.
"Eventually Ireland will come back, it will accept the truth one day - as indeed many other parts of the world will - that we're dealing with two lives here".
'Condemn harassment or intimidation'
Archbishop Martin said he would agree that protesting outside abortion services is wrong.
"I think that we would condemn any kind of harassment or intimidation against women in that distressed situation," he said.
"In fact, we already have laws in this country and yet we're not aware from the Gardaí or others that there are a large number of these situations where people are harassed and intimidated.
"If someone wants to stand outside a medical centre [or] a hospital to pray, they will not be able to do so under this new legislation".
Archbishop Martin added that what he would like to see is "more and more opportunities to provide alternatives to women."
People Before Profit has described his comments on safe access zones as 'offensive'.
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