Backlash after Glasgow MSP likens abortion clinics to 'conveyor belts'.
John Mason claims women aren't being given enough information before the procedure.
Last updated 27th Jun 2022
A Glasgow MSP is facing backlash after comparing abortion clinics to conveyor belts.
John Mason made the comments in an interview with Forth 1 while First Minister Nicola Sturgeon chaired a summit looking at introducing buffer zones to keep pro-life protestors away from service users and staff.
He said: "A few years ago I saw a group standing outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and they were standing well outside across a wide road.
"They were standing very quietly and I would not have called it a protest.
"It was mainly older people saying some prayers."
Our interview has provoked a large response with some politicians publicly condemning Mr Mason for "spreading misinformation."
Labour MSP Monica Lennon re-tweeted our video to and claimed she was disappointed and called on the SNP to investigate.
Women's health Minister Maree Todd has also described his comments as "quite offensive".
She added that while she "profoundly" disagrees with Mr Mason's views, he has a right to express them - but said she felt he is "very much in a minority in our party, and probably in a minority in Scotland".
Mr Mason also said it was a "stretch" to refer to vigils held outside healthcare clinics as "protests", and suggested there had been "some cases" where women have been provided with "very little information" on the process by healthcare professionals.
The First Minister also spoke of Mr Mason's right to his own views, but said: "I vehemently disagree with John Mason on this issue. I am very strongly pro a woman's right to choose.
"I understand that people take a different view. But actually, this is not just about that. This is about access to healthcare.
"We wouldn't tolerate for any other kind of healthcare, people, as they enter a hospital or a clinic, being subject to intimidation or harassment, and we shouldn't tolerate it, in my view, for women accessing abortion services."