The Lib Dem manifesto launch was overshadowed by a row about abortion after it emerged that party leader Tim Farron described it as wrong in an "interview".
The controversy comes just week after Mr Farron, a devout Christian, was embroiled in controversy over his views on whether gay sex is a sin.
In an interview with a Salvation Army publication in 2007, Mr Farron said: "Take the issue of abortion. Personally I wish I could argue it away. Abortion is wrong."
He added: "Society has to climb down from the position that says there is nothing objectionable about abortion before a certain time. If abortion is wrong, it is wrong at any time."
Mr Farron later said that he was "pro-choice now and I was pro-choice then" and that he “may not have explained myself terribly well”in the original interview.
But earlier earlier his party colleague and Lib Dem election spokesman Sir Ed Davey had said: "Tim has made very clear he has changed his mind.
"He's made it clear that he is pro-choice and the Liberal Democrats believe that women should have the right to choose."
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