Campaigners will lodge a legal appeal against a London council’s ban on demonstrations outside an abortion clinic.

Ealing Council was the first in the country to create a protest-free safe zone outside a Marie Stopes clinic in the west London borough.

Alina Dulgheriu, a representative for campaign group Be Here For Me, will file a High Court challenge on Friday against the council’s decision.

The group said the order “criminalises prayer and support outside an abortion clinic”.

Ms Dulgheriu, 34, said she was offered financial, practical and moral help, as well as accommodation, and now has a “beautiful” six-year-old daughter.

The Public Spaces Protection Order came into force on Monday after reports of “intimidation, harassment and distress” for women using the Marie Stopes clinic on Mattock Lane.

John Hansen-Brevetti, clinical operations manager at the clinic, said women had been told the ghost of their foetus would haunt them, had been told “mummy, mummy, don’t kill me”, had holy water thrown on them and rosary beads thrust at them.