A bill sponsored by Democratic state Senator in the US state of Illinois to amend civil union legislation to provide for a conscience clause for faith-based adoption agencies was defeated yesterday.

The state’s Senate Executive Committee rejected the bill by a narrow vote, 7 to 6, after homosexual rights groups and the influential  liberal lobby organisation the American Civil Liberties Union fiercely opposed the legislation.

The bill, SB 1123, was promoted by Senator David Koehler, who introduced the civil union legislation in the state Senate.

The proposal would have allowed religious child welfare agencies to “decline an adoption or foster family home application” to a couple in a civil union if “if acceptance of that application would constitute a violation of the organisation’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”

A similar, stand-alone bill was struck down by the Illinois Senate Human Services Committee in March. Illinois, the home state of President Barack Obama, is one of the most liberal states in the US.

Senator William Haine, who is also sponsored the bill, told liberal news website HuffPost Chicago that faith-based adoption services “had historically not placed children in households where there’s a couple and they aren’t married”.

“Sexual orientation’s never been brought up,” Senator Haine added.

The civil union legislation, he said, complicated the issue because it changed the definition of the term “spouse”, which could force such agencies to place children with non-marital couples, which would conflict with their ethos.  

He said the groups he spoke to, who work with “hard to place” children, wanted to continue offering adoption and foster care services but do not want to approve applications that are inconsistent with their “right of conscience” and religious beliefs. Traditionally, he said, these organisations place children in married households only.

Unlike the bill’s sponsor, Senator Haine had voted against the original civil unions bill in the Senate because he feared it “would create problems such as this.”

Homosexual rights groups, however, blasted the proposal, claiming that it would codify discrimination into law. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sent a representative to testify against the bill at Wednesday’s hearing, said agencies that receive state funding should abide by the state’s anti-discrimination law which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.

But Robert Gilligan of the Illinois Catholic Conference, who spoke in favor of the bill Wednesday, pointed out that the bill would not bar same-sex couples in civil unions from seeking adoption or foster care services elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Illinois state officials looking into whether publicly funded religious agencies are breaking state laws, including the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Civil Unions Bill or the Illinois Constitution, if they reject same-sex couples as applicants.

If they find that they are in  could mean the end for services offered by three major religious child welfare agencies in the state, including Lutheran Child and Family Services, Catholic Charities and the Evangelical Child and Family Agency.

In 2009, equality legislation enacted by the Labour Government in the UK meant that Catholic adoption agencies were forced to close. The legislation obliged the agencies to treat homosexuals as prospective adoptive parents, a move which would have gone against their ethos.