Recommendations by the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment - if passed at referendum due to take place this summer - could mean women in Northern Ireland would be able to cross the border for an abortion rather than having to travel to the UK.
The committee voted yesterday by a narrow margin to a change in the constitution that would allow abortion without restriction up to 12-weeks.
Green Party MLA Clare Bailey welcomed the decision saying: "This is a really positive development. That the committee have adopted the recommendations of the citizens' assembly is to be welcomed.
"As it stands women are still forced to leave home in distressing circumstances to access healthcare, whereas should this pass at referendum stage, they will be able to access that healthcare within the island of Ireland.
"This does not change the need for legislative reform in Northern Ireland but is still a hugely positive step."
However, former SDLP MLA and pro-life campaigner Alban Maginness described the recommendations as a "tragedy" saying he feared it would make Dublin "the abortion capital of Europe".
"The fact that the are seeking to repeal the Eighth Amendment comes as no surprise.
"But what is surprising is that they have voted to adopt the 1967 Act in all but name. I think that it provides abortion on demand. The fact that there's no conditionality in it makes it really one of the most liberal abortion regimes in Europe.
"It's an extraordinary decision, that southern legislators would countenance anything like this that diminishes life as we know it and have a very damaging and detrimental effect in Ireland."