UK: Adoption charity can't ban gay couples

LONDON (AP) - Britain's charity regulator says a Catholic adoption advisory service that refuses to help gay couples has lost an appeal against a ban on its policy.

Catholic Care, a charity in Leeds, northern England, had argued that as a religious group it should be allowed to offer its adoption-support services only to heterosexuals.

Britain's Charity Commission ruled Thursday that the policy was discriminatory and breached European human rights laws.

The commission said Catholic Care must either stop offering adoption services or change its policy on gay couples.

Similar Catholic agencies have either withdrawn from placing children or have cut their ties with the church since the British government imposed the anti-discrimination rule in 2007.