Cardinal delivers warning to politicians

Scotland's most senior Roman Catholic has warned Roman Catholic politicians who defend abortion that they should not expect to be permitted to remain in full communion with the church.

In a sermon delivered at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh to mark 40 years since the Abortion Act, Cardinal Keith O'Brien said pro-abortion MPs should consider their stance on receiving Communion - and he urged voters to reject candidates who defend a "social evil".

The Cardinal's sermon attacks the 1967 Abortion act, and the Cardinal points out that "... the equivalent of a classroom of children every day are being aborted in their mothers' womb - basically murdered in their mothers' womb."

Although abortion is a reserved issue, legislated over by politicians at Westminster, some Scottish politicians have responded with anger.

Jeremy Purvis, a Liberal Democrat MSP, has accused the cardinal of using "inflammatory" language.