A council’s decision to ban anti-abortion protesters from gathering outside a London clinic has been upheld in the high court.

Campaigners lost a legal challenge to a move by Ealing council to create a 100-metre, protest-free “buffer zone” around the Marie Stopes clinic. The council was the first in the country to take such a decision in an attempt to shield women from demonstrators.

Mr Justice Turner found the ban interfered with the activists’ human rights, but said the council was entitled to conclude it was a “necessary step in a democratic society”.

“There was substantial evidence that a very considerable number of users of the clinic reasonably felt that their privacy was being very seriously invaded at a time and place when they were most vulnerable and sensitive to uninvited attention,” he said.

“It also follows that, in this regard, I am also satisfied that the defendant [council] was entitled to conclude that the effect of the activities of the protesters was likely to make such activities unreasonable, and justified the restrictions imposed.”

Ealing council’s leader, Julian Bell, said the local authority was delighted by the decision. “This sends a clear message ... The harassment and intimidation of local residents and those accessing legally available medical services was totally unacceptable,” he said.

“Since the safe zone was implemented in April, we have seen a dramatic reduction in antisocial behaviour, confirming to us that we were right to take this action in the interest of those people living in the locality of Mattock Lane, and for those who visit the area.”

Lawyers for Alina Dulgheriu of the Be Here For Me campaign argued the local authority did not have the power to make the public spaces protection order (PSPO), which came into force in April after reports of “intimidation, harassment and distress” of women using the facility in Mattock Lane.

Dulgheriu, 34, told how she was offered financial, practical and moral help, as well as accommodation, and now had a six-year-old daughter.

She said she was saddened and shocked by the judge’s decision, and was investigating options to appeal against the ruling.

“I am devastated for those women that since the introduction of the Ealing PSPO have not been able to access the loving help that I did. I feel desperately sorry for the vigil members who since the move to create this PSPO have been consistently subject to abuse on the street and slander online,” Dulgheriu said.

John Hansen-Brevetti, the clinical operations manager at the Ealing centre, said women had been told the ghost of their foetus would haunt them, heard chants of “Mummy, Mummy, don’t kill me” from protesters, and had holy water thrown at them and rosary beads thrust at them.

Kuljit Bhogal, the counsel for Ealing council, said it had to balance the group’s rights with those of the service’s users, clinic staff and others in the area upon whom the protesters’ activities were having a detrimental effect.

“In what has been a delicate balancing exercise, the council has facilitated the activities of the pro-life and pro-choice groups by providing a designated zone where they can continue their activities,” he said.

The Guardian has reported that eight councils in England were considering setting up abortion clinic buffer zones after pro-choice groups said the number of intimidating protests was on the rise.

Quick Guide Access to abortion across the UK Show How does access to abortion vary across the UK? The 1967 Abortion Act legalised terminations in England, Wales and Scotland. It permits abortion for non-medical reasons up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and with the permission of two doctors. Abortion law was devolved to Holyrood as part of the Scotland Act 2016. The SNP has reaffirmed its commitment to ​current ​legal protections and to maintaining time limits in line with the rest of the UK. The 1967 ​​act does not extend to Northern Ireland. Abortion is legal in Northern Ireland only when the pregnancy poses a direct threat to the mother’s life. ​​An ​​amendment by the Labour MP Stella Creasy to allow Northern Irish women access to NHS-funded abortions in England was passed by Westminster in 2017. The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, confirmed that regulations allowing Scottish health boards to provide abortion services to women from Northern Ireland would come into force at the beginning of November of that year. In July 2019, the UK parliament in Westminster voted to harmonise the laws on abortion and same-sex marriage across the whole of the UK if the Northern Ireland Assembly had not been restored by 21 October. On 3 October 2019, the high court in Belfast ruled that Northern Ireland’s strict abortion law breaches the UK’s human rights commitments.

Across the country, 42 vigils and protests have taken place between 2017 and 2018, according to figures compiled by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. They were led by anti-abortion groups such as the Good Counsel Network and 40 Days for Life.

Rachael Clarke, a public affairs and advocacy manager at BPAS, said the spread of such tactics was “deeply worrying”.

“In recent years, protests have become more regular, wider spread and more intimidating. What used to be a couple of nuns on the street is now groups of people approaching women and trying to talk to them about their personal medical decisions,” she said.