Legislation to restrict anti-abortion protests outside clinics in Scotland is "necessary", the women's health minister has said.
Maree Todd spoke out before a summit on the issue is held in Edinburgh on Monday.
The meeting - which will bring together politicians, pro-choice campaigners and police - aims to ensure that women in Scotland can access services without fear, harassment or intimidation.
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It will also seek to identify short term actions to protect women from harassment or intimidation outside hospitals and sexual health clinics.
Todd said immediate solutions for moving protesters on from healthcare sites will be discussed with Police Scotland at the summit.
“We are very careful in Scotland when we legislate to restrict people’s human rights,” she told BBC Radio Scotland.
“Human rights are precious, and in Scotland they’re built into the devolution settlement, so we’re not able to make law in a way that restricts people’s human rights, so we have to be careful that we balance everyone’s human rights and that we act in a necessary and proportionate way.”
Todd also said she “profoundly” disagrees with views expressed by fellow SNP MSP John Mason, who showed support towards the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade on Friday.
Mason has previously admitted to attending an anti-abortion vigil and said abortion is “seldom essential or vital”.
The MSP, who represents Glasgow Shettleston, is a committed Christian who has defended the anti-abortion “vigils” that have sprung up at Glasgow hospitals in a copy of protests seen at US abortion clinics.
In an e-mail response to an inquiry, Mason said he was “pretty positive” about the US court ruling which overturned the 50-year-old Roe vs Wade case that guaranteed abortion rights across America.
He linked the return to individual US states ruling on abortion instead of federal law to the devolution of powers over the abortion process to the Scottish parliament.
He said: “In the first place it is good for democracy as decisions on abortion will be made at state level rather than United States wide."
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