Pro-choice protesters will gather outside the Dáil later to press for changes to the abortion legislation.

One of their demands is for the scrapping of the three day waiting period contained in the bill.

The Dáil rejected an amendment on Wednesday night to get rid of the measure.

The Health Minister Simon Harris said it was something that people voted for in the referendum.

But Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger believes it is a backward step:

"What I'm saying is this seems to be about punishing women and making it as difficult as possible for them.

"These sorts of waiting periods are being brought in in the US by very conservative, religious fundamentalist, Republican, Trump-type people.

"And we've just introduced it in a state-of-the-art piece of legislation, which is a pity.

"And we definitely need to agree that this will be reviewed if it becomes a major problem."

Linda Kavanagh, from the Abortion Rights Campaign, is one of the organisers of the rally.

She says the campaign also wants all criminal sanctions removed from the bill.

"We also want to see the full decriminalisation of abortion - for both the pregnant person and the person who's providing the abortion care.

"It is recommended by UN bodies, by the World Health Organisation that no one should be afraid to go to jail for helping someone to get an abortion".