An Oxford University student whose mother almost aborted her is standing as a ProLife Alliance candidate.

Fiona Pinto, an English Literature student at Magdalen College, has finished her finals and now hopes to represent her home constituency of Welwyn Hatfield.

Miss Pinto said she was almost aborted when doctors told her mother that she was going to be disabled.

She said: "I am, of course, delighted that my mother did not bow to medical pressure when she was pregnant.

"The basic right to life underlies every other issue - it is of fundamental importance in health and education - and is the cornerstone of any just society. Election time seems increasingly to be the only time at which MPs can be held to account."

The 21-year-old has spent much of her final year protesting against the legalisation of human cloning by collecting petitions and demonstrating.