RICHMOND, Va. (CBSDC/AP) — With little debate, a Senate committee has endorsed a House-passed bill allowing private child placement agencies to deny adoptions for gays or others who offend their religious or moral teaching.

The measure heads to the Senate floor after an 8-7 party-line vote Friday in the Republican-dominated Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee. The Senate has already approved a similar bill and sent it to the House.

Mindful of the earlier defeats and the inevitability of the same outcome, committee Democrats largely held their fire except for Sen. Mark Herring.

He told the bill’s patron, Del. Todd Gilbert, that it was a bad bill full of harmful consequences, both intended and unintended.

Earlier in the month Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. That would Virginia just the second state to authorize private child-placement agencies to reject adoptions based on their beliefs.

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