Abortion will be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, the UK Government has confirmed.

The decision has been welcomed by one of Scotland's leading Christian charities who have called for the issue to be debated for the first time in Holyrood.

"We welcome the fact abortion is to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament," said CARE for Scotland director, Stuart Weir.

"The transfer of such a major new power clearly merits a full Parliamentary debate and MSPs should take advantage of this opportunity as soon as possible.

"In recent years the Scottish Parliament has debated assisted suicide and other complicated topics and proved itself equal to the task so it makes obvious sense to debate abortion laws in Scotland following this transfer."

The transfer of power was considered by the cross-party Smith Commission and was supported by the SNP, Conservatives, Lib Dems and Scottish Greens, but not Labour.

Having been previously been retained as a reserved issue in 1999, subsequent polling by YouGov showed half of Scots wanted to become a devolved matter.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said that people felt very strongly about the issue and the government understood that.

"We will bring forward an amendment to the Scotland Bill so that abortion law can be devolved to the Scottish Parliament," he told the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster.

"Holyrood already has responsibility for dealing with end of life issues. It has responsibility for the NHS and for criminal justice in Scotland. I do not see a convincing constitutional reason for why abortion law should not be devolved and that is what has led me to this decision."

The First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon is in favour of abortion becoming a devolved issue but did not say she would make any changes to the existing legislation.