MSPs have been urged to consider amending Scotland's domestic abuse laws to make it a crime to cause someone to miscarry.

Currently, Scotland is the only part of the UK where ending another person's pregnancy is not a specific crime.

On Wednesday, Holyrood’s petitions committee considered the plea of a mum who lost three babies because of a violent ex-partner.

Nicola Murray has urged the parliament to introduce an Unborn Victims of Violence Act – or Brodie’s Law – to create a specific offence to “enable the judiciary to adequately prosecute perpetrators”.

She was just six weeks pregnant when she miscarried in 2013 after her abusive ex knocked her over with his car in a fit of rage.

Four years after her first miscarriage, Nicola lost a second child after she was allegedly attacked by a new partner.

The committee heard from Dr Mary Neal, a reader in law at Strathclyde University, who said Scotland’s domestic abuse law as it stood was “ill-equipped to deal” with abuse cases which lead to miscarriage. 

The academic said there had been "an alarming increase in convictions for that crime in recent decades,” in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“And we know that the same kind of behaviour happens in Scotland," Dr Neal told the committee.

While in other parts of the UK, the crime is libelled as a separate charge alongside charges such as assault or attempted murder or grievous bodily harm, in Scotland only the charges relating to the offence on victim can be prosecuted. 

“It's something in England and Wales and Northern Ireland that is charged over and above assault or attempted murder.

"We have cases recent cases in Scotland, with really shocking facts, where somebody could have been charged additionally, with the crime that I've proposed, but for the fact that we don't have that crime here.”

Dr Neal said the the Domestic Abuse Act 2018 could be amended to include a new crime.

Dr Marsha Scott, Chief Executive at Scottish Women's Aid said that there needed to be “guarantees” for women when they disclose abuse.

She said women needed to be sure that the criminal justice system “will respond swiftly and robustly enough to keep her safe" and also make sure  arrangements were in place for women who were financially dependent on the abuser "so that she can put food on the table, so she can take care of herself and her unborn baby.“

Dr Scott said she had concerns that any legislation could have “completely unintended potential, but negative consequences.”

She had spoken to counterparts in England who knew of women “who are actually victims having been prosecuted for child destruction.” 

“If you can imagine what would have a more chilling impact on the possibility of disclosing domestic abuse if you were pregnant than then knowing that you might, in fact, be accused of, at best, failure to protect the fetus. 

“So I think I think we need to be very, very cautious about them, and especially look at what's happening in the United States around some of these laws.”

However, Dr Neal said this could be avoided. "This crime of child destruction is messly entangled with abortion law in the rest of the UK. And that's something we can completely design out of any new law that we enact."

The committee agreed to write to organisations in the rest of the UK to explore their experiences of the law as it stands.