A number of amendments to the abortion bill have been defeated in the Dáil.

Independent4Change TD Clare Daly called for the collection of data to be moved from primary legislation to the clinical guidelines to avoid abortion stigma.

However, Minister for Health Simon Harris refused the amendment.

Minister Harris said data would be required in the legislation during the initial stages of the service, but it could be looked at when the legislation is reviewed in 3 years time.

A separate amendment introduced by anti-abortion TDs sought an increase in the amount of data collected.

Details requested by the deputies included the recording of age, marital status, ethnicity of the women, the number of times they have been pregnant before resulting in live births, still births over 24 weeks, spontaneous miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and previous terminations.

Independent TD Peadar Tóibín argued that in Britain a four page document is collected by doctors who have a provision for abortion and the data collected is used for research, policy development and to "understand what's happening in the system".

He said the more information that can be gathered can influence policy in the future.

Labour TD Joan Burton strongly objected to the amendment, particularly to the stipulation that the ethnicity of the woman be recorded.

Deputy Burton described it as an effort to extract information from women that would shame them.

Social Democrats Co-Leader Catherine Murphy said it was not about public health policy it was was about making women feel guilty.

"It's objectionable", she said "and it's been tabled for all the wrong reasons".

Independent TDy Carol Nolan said those proposing the amendment sought to give some statistical significance to the life and death of unborn child, because, she said it had already been decided that it would not be given constitutional protections.

Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O'Brien asked deputies to imagine being a rape victim and having to answer a series of questions around previous live births and other factors in the proposal.

He described it "archaic and racist" and said it was a poor reflection on the individuals that would expect rape victims to respond to such questions.

Independent TD Michael Collins noted that he had spoken before about the high percentage of women in the UK having abortions and said there was no record of all those women being abused.

On the issue of ethnicity, he said women in other jurisdictions were vulnerable and targetted by abortion providers to make money for them - he said the inclusion of any ethnic group was to support those at risk.

Solidarity People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said the TDs who put forward the amendment were presenting the legislation as if the bill did not collect any information at all.

She said it did provide for data collection and called on those seeking more data to withdraw the amendment because she said it was "malicious and vindictive".

Minister Harris said he hoped that the deputies introducing the bill would welcome free contraception with the same vigour they argued for the amendment in question.

He said the bill allowed for the collection of minimal information so the initial roll-out of abortion services could be monitored.

He also pointed out that a second amendment proposed by the same group of TDs sought to place a criminal sanction on doctors who would not collect the data outlined.

Minister Harris said he could think of a better use of doctors rather than putting them in jail for five years as stated in the amendment and stigmatising them.

The amendments were overwhelmingly defeated.