The Rev Joanna Jepson, ordained this year after graduating with an MA in pastoral theology from Cambridge, was born with a congenital jaw defect that was not corrected until her late teens. She has a brother with Down’s syndrome.

Miss Jepson said: “If they follow the argument through, they are saying there are reasons why I should not have been allowed to live. It is absolutely offensive . . . We bend over backwards not to discriminate (against people with disabilities) in society, yet when it comes to the unborn we are seeing a level of eugenics in action.

“I want to see the law tightened so that the eugenics agenda does not become widely accepted or accepted at all.”

Miss Jepson was horrified to hear of the case of a woman who had an abortion on discovering that the baby had a cleft palate. It took place more than 24 weeks into her pregnancy, the legal limit unless there is a risk of serious handicap.

She argues that Paul West, the Chief Constable of West Mercia, should have prosecuted the doctor for performing a late abortion and is calling for a legal ruling that a cleft palate is not a serious handicap. The High Court rejected the original application for judicial review, but the application will be renewed on December 1.

Miss Jepson, whose action is being funded by private donors, studied theology and did her MA while training for the priesthood at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. She was installed as curate at the evangelical church of St Michael’s in Chester last July.

It took three operations between the ages of 17 and 19 to correct a serious jaw defect that, when she was growing up, affected her appearance, speech and confidence and caused her to be badly bullied at school.

She said that she had learnt through her experiences to turn her disability to good use: “I know how it feels to be stigmatised because of my looks. I was bullied quite severely throughout my school life. They had to wait for the bones to stop growing to operate — it was major intensive care kind of stuff.”

She believes her action is important in a society where so much value is placed on appearance, but is also influenced by her love for her brother.

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