A 40-day anti-abortion protest outside a Glasgow hospital, which started today, has been branded ‘disgraceful’ by an MSP.

The 40 Days For Life campaign, based in Texas in the USA, has started its operation outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

A small group was on a road outside holding placards with anti-abortion messages.

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The protesters say they will be there on a rotation basis day and night until April 2 this year to “offer prayer and support” to women accessing terminations or related healthcare at the hospital.

Their continuing presence has been criticised by the MSP who is seeking a law to have ‘buffer zones’ to move protesters away from hospitals and clinics.

Gillian Mackay, Green MSP and the party’s health spokesperson, said: “These protests are a disgraceful attempt to intimidate people out of accessing healthcare. "Some of the protesters carry very graphic banners and other protests have seen loudspeakers and megaphones.

“It will be a 40-day gauntlet of harassment. It is utterly unacceptable and has no place in a modern and progressive Scotland.

“How can we talk about rights and equality when people are being intimidated like this?”

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The Glasgow Times visited the site of the protest where four people were outside.

Dr Greg Irwin, a paediatric radiologist, came out from the hospital on his break to ask them to move but they refused.

Glasgow Times:

One said they were there “to offer prayer and support” and were not outside parliament “because we’re not political”.

Our reporter asked them a number of questions but they declined to answer.

They declined to answer when asked if they thought this was a political issue.

They didn’t answer when asked what they would say to people who thought they were intimidating women going to the hospital.

And they refused to answer when asked what they thought about buffer zones.

The MSP’s bill has the backing of the Scottish Government, the British Medical Association (Scotland) and the Royal College of GPs.

More than 12,000 people filled in the consultation about the Bill.

Mackay added: “Abortion rights are human rights. Yet, all over our country, far too many people are having to manoeuvre their way past groups of campaigners.