Martin Luther King's niece is comparing the fight against racism with the fight against abortion, describing the pro-life campaign as 'the new civil rights movement'.

Alveda King said babies are being 'womb-lynched' by pregnancy terminations, warning 'today's unborn are yesterday's blacks – best kept out of sight and out of mind lest they remind us of the injustices we commit'.

King admitted her personal experience of abortion deeply scarred her and led her to campaign on the issue.

'I see absolutely no difference between the denial of rights to people because of their skin colour and the denial of rights to people because of their age or condition of dependency,' she said.

'There is no doubt that the pro-life movement is the civil rights movement of our century because it is the fundamental right of every one of every race to live. Of what use are all our other rights if we can simply choose to deny a person the right to be born in the first place?'

The hard-hitting remarks came in an address to MPs, peers and campaigners in Westminster on Saturday following a series of events to commemorate the occasion.

A one-minute silence was observed. a mass celebrated in Westminster Cathedral and churches were urged to ring their bells 50 times to mark the anniversary.

At the same time Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joined more than 100 other MPs calling on the Home Secretary to ban pro-life vigils outside abortion clinics.

A letter, signed by 113 MPs including Corbyn and Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, was sent to coincide with the anniversary that first permitted abortions in Britain.

It comes after Ealing council in West London voted to ban a vigil outside a local clinic in the borough.

Rupee Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central, said the idea was 'not to stop protests, but to ask protesters to instead make use of the many places they could protest – from Parliament Square to town centres to Speakers Corner'.

But even as Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Hull North, leads a campaign for full decriminalisation of abortion, Alveda King said she was convinced it would one day be abolished.

'If history tells us one thing about mass killing, it's that it is always preceded by dehumanisation.

'We must now decry this lie from the rooftops. We must unite in proclaiming the settled scientific truth that a unique and distinct human life is present from conception,' she said.

'After the inevitable abolition of abortion, as future generations look back on this dark era, let our names be counted among those who peacefully resisted.'