The Catholic Church in Scotland has issued a statement on abortion saying: “Taking life from the unborn... cannot be right”.

As First Minister Nicola Sturgeon chairs a summit on buffer zones around healthcare facilities to protect women from protests, the Catholic Bishops offered their “perspective to the people of Scotland”.

While the statement said the rights of a woman were of “great concern” it gave priority to the rights of the unborn child.

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The First Minister has said the protests seen in Glasgow were “completely and utterly unacceptable”.

She has said: “My call to those who want to protest against abortion, is to come and do it outside this parliament where laws are made and leave women alone and stop trying to intimidate them.”

The Bishops said conflict from the debate on abortion rights should be handled with “respect and civility”.

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The Catholic Bishops statement, in full, said: “Whether we believe in anything spiritual or not, the life that each one of us lives is the only one we have, and to take life from the unborn, no matter how insignificant in size, cannot be right.  

"The rights of a woman and the compassion and support due to her, and the circumstances of her pregnancy, are naturally of great concern to us, but an unborn life, once taken, can never be restored.  

"This is what makes abortion such a profoundly important matter for all human beings.

“No matter what position we take, this belief in the profound importance of the issue is shared by us all. It is incumbent on us therefore to accept that deeply held and divergent opinions are at stake and that the conflict which arises from this should be handled with respect and civility.

“Those who do not believe human life begins at the moment of conception, invite the question: ‘when does it begin?’ while those who believe that it does, ask the question: ‘what right have we to take a unique and unrepeatable human life?’

“If we are to be the caring and compassionate society we aspire to be, upholding the sanctity and dignity of all human life must be the foundational principal upon which that aspiration rests.”