Edinburgh City Council has said it will approach the Scottish Government about introducing legislation to ban pro-life vigils outside abortion clinics. 

So-called 'buffer zones' have already been introduced around abortion clinics in Ealing and Richmond, with another in the pipeline by Manchester City Council. 

The Ealing and Richmond buffer zones criminalise prayer and offers of help to women within 150 metres of the clinics. 

Now Edinburgh City Council has backed calls for a buffer zone to be introduced around the Chalmers Street Sexual Health Centre in the heart of the city. 

Leading the call is campaign group Back Off Scotland, which claims women seeking abortions at the clinic are being harassed. 

A petition by Back Off Scotland, signed by 4,800 people, calls pro-life vigils "anti-choice" and threatens women's rights to "access, essential medical services". 

"Current law does not give the police the power to stop this harassment," it says.

The petition was recently accepted by Edinburgh City Council following a meeting of its policy committee, Edinburgh Evening News reports.

Council leader Adam McVey said during the debate that women had the right to "access healthcare facilities unimpeded", and that there had to be "sensible parameters" around free speech.

The council itself is not able to introduce legislation banning pro-life vigils and must instead engage with the Scottish Parliament, something it has said it will do. 

A recent attempt to ban pro-life vigils outside abortion clinics across England and Wales failed to pass through the Commons last September.

The Bill, introduced by Rupa Huq MP, had sought to impose a two-year prison sentence on offering support to women within 150 metres of an abortion clinic. 

Pro-lifers insist their vigils are peaceful and say that the buffer zones amount to censorship.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is among the groups defending the right to hold pro-life vigils outside abortion clinics.

"Saving the right to save lives is vital," spokesperson Michael Robinson said. 

"Pro-life citizens have a right to gather peacefully and women have the right to receive the care and help they offer."