AN SNP MP has accused Yvette Cooper of promoting "patriarchal" ideas about abortion.
Deidre Brock called on the former Labour leadership hopeful to apologise for claims Holyrood is less equipped than Westminster to deal sensitive healthcare issues.
Earlier this week Ms Cooper warned against Conservative ministers' plans to devolve powers over abortion, describing the move as "deeply unwise".
"To have smaller jurisdictions making decisions that are so sensitive on healthcare ... would allow those who want to lobby against the interests of healthcare to undermine the interests of women both in Scotland and in England," she told MPs.
Ms Brock said: “Ms Cooper’s condescending comments underline how out of touch her party is with what’s happening in Scotland.
"The idea that the male-dominated Palace of Westminster is better placed to take ‘sensitive decisions’ on Scottish women’s healthcare is deeply patronising and patriarchal."
In a letter to Ms Cooper, the SNP MP for Edinburgh North and Leith wrote: "Can I invite you to share the evidence you have that the size of a jurisdiction correlates with failures in decisions on abortion and other ‘sensitive decisions’?
"Perhaps you have evidence that Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Estonia, Iceland and Latvia have seen the interests of women undermined by lobbyists?
"You may have evidence, on the other hand, that Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya and Saudi Arabia have seen the interests of women protected and their rights enhanced?"
Ms Cooper hit back, saying that in the US where each state has separate abortion laws "vociferous anti-abortion groups have used that to target each state at a time in order to restrict abortion and undermine women's healthcare".
No-one wanted to see similar tactics on this side of the Atlantic, she added.
"This is too important for people to attempt to score cheap party political points," she said.
"We should all be working together to protect the reproductive rights of women right across the UK."
MPs will vote on proposals to devolve abortion next week.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel