AUGUSTA – Labeled by critics as an irrelevant piece of legislation, a “gay gene” bill that tied together gay rights and abortion issues has been killed for the session.

The House and Senate were formally notified Monday that the bill to outlaw abortion based on sexual orientation has been unanimously rejected by the Judiciary Committee, which puts it in the dead files for the session.

The bill, LD 908, sponsored by Rep. Brian Duprey, R-Hampden, received a cool reception at a hearing earlier this month when anti-abortion activists and their adversaries who oppose restrictions on abortion dismissed the measure as irrelevant.

The bill sought to make it illegal to abort a fetus based on what it called “the projected sexual orientation of the fetus after birth.” First, scientists would have to identify a gay gene that could then be detected in a fetus.