Pro-choice campaigners and politicians want to introduce 150-metre zones around facilities providing abortion so prayer vigils, offers of help, and pickets would all be banned.

At a meeting on Monday, local authorities retreated from their previous opposition to the use of bylaws to move the protests. Councils have more flexibility than the national Government around where people are allowed to gather and it is thought that bylaws could be used as a temporary measure while national legislation continues to be examined.

Susan Aitken, the SNP leader of Glasgow city council, said she was prepared to make her authority a national test case.

Concerns have been raised about legal issues surrounding the introduction of national legislation, such as human rights and the ability to protest. Nicola Sturgeon again signaled support for a national law, although that could take years to resolve those issues.