Protests outside abortion clinics in Scotland are a “disgrace”, Humza Yousaf has declared.
The Scottish Health Secretary urged demonstrators to gather outside the Scottish Parliament instead of “intimidating and harassing” women who are trying to access services.
He spoke out as Nicola Sturgeon said she would convene and chair a round-table summit which more than a dozen women’s organisations have demanded to discuss access to abortion clinics.
Responding to questions from Scottish Labour’s Monica Lennon on the controversial anti-abortion “vigils” outside clinics across the country, the First Minister said attacks on the rights of women were “deeply concerning”.
Sturgeon said the government was actively considering how to introduce “buffer zones” around clinics in a way that would not be open to legal challenge.
She urged councils to use by laws to keep protesters at a distance and sent a strong message to protesters to take their placards to parliament and not the entrance of clinics.
Sturgeon said: “Everybody without exception should have the right to access health care without fear and trepidation and that applies to any woman seeking access to abortion services.”
“It is a democracy a right to protest but come to parliament and protest against lawmakers, do not cause women fear, anxiety and intimidation.”
Anti-abortion SNP MSP John Mason, who has backed protesters, asked if the 24 week limit on abortions would be under review in the summit but he received short shrift from the First Minister.
Labour’s Monica Lennon MSP welcomed the First Minister’s commitment to a roundtable summit amid growing tensions over anti-abortion protests outside healthcare facilities in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
She said: “Protests have been gaining momentum in recent weeks, and I think most people will have been appalled and saddened by some of the footage from outside the Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow yesterday."
“Today feels like a real turning point in the campaign to ensure women who are accessing abortion healthcare in Scotland can do so without intimidation and harassment. It is important that the emergency talks get underway quickly.”
Earlier Health Secretary Yousaf said: “I think some of those protests that we’ve seen are a disgrace, and I don’t use that word lightly.
“I don’t take away from people’s viewpoints that they might have. I know there’ll be people on various different sides of the debate in relation to abortion."
There have been demands for buffer zones to be introduced in a bid to prevent women being harassed as they access healthcare.
Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay is set to introduce a Member’s Bill at Holyrood to legislate for their implementation around abortion clinics
Yousaf also said comments in defence of the demonstrations from his SNP colleague John Mason were “plain wrong”.
Mason, the MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, came under fire at the weekend for saying clinics “push abortion without laying out the pros and cons”.
He has admitted previously attending one of the demonstrations, and has said he believes abortion is “seldom essential or vital”.
The Health Secretary said his party colleague’s comments were “misjudged” and “ill-informed”.
Yousaf added: “I would suggest to John Mason that he goes in and meets clinicians. Meet those that are involved in providing services.”
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