Charity CARE for Scotland has said that the proposed Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill risks undermining free speech.

In its response to the public consultation on the draft proposal for legislation, the charity said it was ‘especially worried about the proposed introduction of custodial sentences for so-called protesters’.

The views of the public were sought after Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay launched a private members' Bill in May.

The proposed Bill would implement a 150-metre buffer around hospitals and clinics.

In its response, CARE said this would ‘sit uneasily with the notion of Scotland as a free and open democratic society.’

Under the proposals, buffer zones would be introduced around abortion clinics across Scotland.

Some campaigners have said intimidation and harassment takes place outside clinics.

In its response, CARE for Scotland said it would ‘condemn any behaviors that deliberately harass others, or actively impede freedom of movement.’

The focus on buffer zones also risks obscuring more significant aspects of the wider abortion debate, the charity warned.

Record numbers of abortions have taken place in Scotland, including the termination of babies with Downs’ syndrome.

A conversation was urgently needed, CARE said, about the drivers of abortion in Scotland.

Read CARE for Scotland’s consultation response on the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill.