(jimmywayne22, Flickr)

(jimmywayne22, Flickr)

A pair of controversial bills in the North Dakota Legislature were voted down on Friday. A bill to protect people from being discriminated against based on sexual orientation in housing and employment lost in the House by a vote of 54-34, while an anti-abortion bill to convey constitutional rights to a fertilized egg lost in the Senate by a vote of 29-16.

On the gay rights bill, one Republican said it is important to protect the rights of others before those of gays and lesbians. “There’s a big difference between a behavior and a lifestyle and something you don’t have a choice in,” Rep. Robin Weisz, R-Hurdsfield, told the Dickinson Press. “I don’t think it’s needed. I believe it has consequences that aren’t in the best interests of this state, that do intrude on the rights of others who are also protected under this great constitution.”

Rep. Kathy Hawken, R-Fargo, shot back that gays and lesbians are an important part of the community. “I’m relatively sure no one was checking the sexual orientation of the volunteer sandbaggers in Fargo. It simply didn’t make a difference. People were just people,” she said.

“It has been said that this is a choice,” Hawken said. “Religion is also a choice but yet that’s protected.”

Meanwhile, a bill to convey rights to fertilized eggs — and thereby ban any and all abortion — also failed to pass.

“This poorly constructed legislation would have had a profound impact on the state, affecting everything from when property rights are granted, to inheritance rights, to access to the courts,” said Tim Stanley of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (PPMNS). “This bill would have put the government in charge of personal health care decisions best left to women, their doctors and families — not politicians.”