Ealing Council became the first in the country to create a protest-free “buffer zone” outside a Marie Stopes clinic in April 2018 following demonstrations.
The council imposed the public spaces protection order (PSPO) following reports of “intimidation, harassment and distress” for women using the facility in Mattock Lane.
Christian mother, 35-year-old Alina Dulgheriu, and Andrea Orthova, who regularly attend a vigil run by the Good Counsel Network (GCN), mounted a legal challenge at the Court of Appeal in a bid to overturn the ban on protests directly outside the clinic.
At a hearing in London in July, their lawyers argued the ban interferes with their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights to freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief and freedom of assembly and association.
They also said the council was wrong to use a PSPO because the orders were designed to protect local residents from anti-social behaviour, and clinic users were “one-off or occasional” visitors to the area.
The Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton and two other senior judges will give their decision on the case on Wednesday.
Lawyers for the two women previously told the court the PSPO “criminalises acts of prayer” and said it was the “first time since the reign of Elizabeth I that public prayer has been subject to potential criminal sanction”.
Their barrister Philip…
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