Keep "Matters of Conscience" at Westminster

This is interesting:

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond has called for a national debate on handing powers over abortion law in Scotland from Westminster to Holyrood.

Salmond is right, it is a matter of personal conscience, not just for our political represntatives but for every member of society.

But this next bit makes me nervous:

The move last night immediately raised claims that Salmond was acting under 'pressure' from religious leaders. Salmond met Catholic leader Cardinal Keith O'Brien and discussed the issue over the summer.

He is also close to party donor Brian Souter, the tycoon who led the campaign to keep Section 28, the law banning the promotion of homosexuality, and bankrolled the SNP's election victory earlier this year.

Whether such claims are true or not, removing the question of abortion from the authority of Westminster to that of the devolved assemblies would be a retrograde step. Scottish (and Northern Irish) society is more socially conservative than the rest of the United Kingdom and that’s fine, but those women and girls who happen to find themselves in Scotland and Northern Ireland should not be penalised for that fact. By all means churches, "pro-life" groups and whomever can campaign or, more importantly, educate on the abortion issue. They do not, however, have the right to demand that the rest of the population should be legally bound by their views in matters of conscience.

Westminster is the ultimate guardian of a modern, liberal and secular Britain and it’s there that the debate on such issues as abortion and homosexual rights should be taking place.

Footnote:

And as if to prove my point, the debate also seems to be warming up in Northern Ireland.