BISMARCK -- A bill allowing North Dakota's adoption agencies to refuse service to some families is constitutional, the state's attorney general says.

Supporters of Senate Bill 2188 say it will put into law current practices, in which private adoption agencies licensed by the state are free to pick and choose clients.

All adoptions in North Dakota are done through private agencies licensed by the state. Three of the six licensed agencies are affiliated with religious denominations and a fourth is religiously based.

The bill says the state Department of Human Services can't deny an adoption agency a state license on the basis of an agency's objection to placements that violate the agency's religious or moral convictions.

Gay families have testified against the bill, saying it is aimed at them. It passed the Senate earlier this session and has been held up in the House Human Services Committee awaiting Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's opinion.

House Minority Leader Merle Boucher, D-Rolette, asked for the opinion on behalf of the committee's Democrats and Rep. Mary Ekstrom, D-Fargo, who is not on the committee.

Boucher asked Stenehjem if all North Dakotans are "entitled to fair and equal consideration regardless of religion, race, ethnic origin, gender, sexual preference or physical appearance" in adoption services.

Committee Chairwoman Rep. Clara Sue Price, R-Minot, said the committee will work on the bill next week.

In the opinion, released Wednesday afternoon, Stenehjem cites court cases involving religious freedom, then writes, "By permitting child-placing agencies to not participate in placement activities that violate their religious or moral convictions or policies, SB 2188 permissibly accommodates the religious or moral beliefs of child-placing agencies."

That the state licenses the agencies doesn't enter the constitutional equation.

"A child-placing agency's decision not to perform or participate in a particular placement would be a decision made by the agency and not the state," he wrote.

He also said SB 2188 doesn't prevent potential foster or adoptive parents from seeking services from a different agency if one turns them down.

Boucher said the opinion was not what he had hoped to hear, but "we respect what the attorney general tells us."