LONDON, February 9, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The UK Guardian is reporting today that Michael Howard, leader of The Conservative Party, Britain’s main opposition party, is pledging to support new legislation to legalize ‘civil partnerships’ for same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples.  In a speech promising “to give people greater control over their own lives,” the Tory leader said that “It is not up to the state to stop others who want to “live their lives in different ways.”  Howard replaced former leader Iain Duncan-Smith, a pro-life Catholic, as leader of the opposition last fall. Howard has a mixed voting record on abortion; he voted in favour of destructive research on cloned human embryos in 2000.

Read local coverage at: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,9061,1144297,00.html

Also read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage ‘British Conservatives Oust Pro-Life Leader for Anti-Lifer’ at:  http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/nov/03111206.html