A CHESTER curate is attempting to single-handedly change the law over late abortions.

Shocked by the news that a mother was allowed an abortion after discovering her child would have a cleft-palate - the Rev Joanna Jepson has decided to take action.

She has begun legal proceedings against West Mercia Constabulary for failing to prosecute the doctor who carried out the operation at Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust.

The Cambridge graduate, who lives in Mannings Lane, Upton, was born with a similar condition and finds it hard to believe that having a cleft palate is justification for having an abortion following the 24-week mark.

Only the risk of a serious handicap can allow the 24-week legal limit to be surpassed.

Ordained last summer, 27-year-old Rev Jepson is now curate of St Michael's Church in Newton.

She said: 'I want to see a clarification of the law so that abortions do not take place for trivial reasons and so that discrimination against the disabled does not become widely accepted.

'We need to resist the belief that the value of human life lies in physical perfection and have a wider understanding of disabilities so that disability is not seen purely in negative terms.'

Although the original application for a judicial review was rejected by a High Court judge on October 29, Miss Jepson's solicitor Paul Conrathe plans to renew the application on December 1.

Miss Jepson says she does not intend to take the mother to court.

Speaking to Radio Five Live on Wednesday she said her action was aimed at 'the doctor, who I feel has clearly abdicated his responsibility, both legal and medical, and not at the mother who is in a vulnerable situation.'