House Bill 13-91, which would have added “health status” as a protected category and limited employers’ ability to use vaccination or other medical-treatment status in employment and service decisions, failed in the Senate after a daylong floor debate. The final roll call showed 17 ayes, 29 nays and 1 absent, so the bill did not pass.

The bill’s sponsor explained the measure as protecting “medical freedom” and preventing employment discrimination based on private medical decisions. Senator Behm introduced an amendment that narrowed some definitions and added an appropriation; the amendment failed in a verification vote, 16 ayes to 30 nays with 1 absent.

Opponents, led on the floor by Senator Klein, said the bill would interfere with employers’ ability to set health-and-safety policies, expose businesses and state agencies to litigation and limit public-health protections for vulnerable populations. Klein cited testimony from the North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights that the department would likely need additional staff and estimated costs (the department told the committee it could require roughly five additional full-time positions at an estimated cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars). Klein and other opponents pointed to testimony from hospitals, public-health officials and business groups warning the proposed protected class would create legal uncertainty.

Supporters—including the amendment’s carrier, Senator Behm, and others who testified—said the bill would protect individuals’ ability to keep a job and to refuse medical interventions without losing employment. Senator Myrdal and others invoked individual-liberty arguments and described cases where employees said they lost work for declining vaccinations.

During floor debate, other senators emphasized practical trade-offs: Senator Lee and others noted clinical situations where vaccination requirements protect patients with severely weakened immune systems and argued employers and health-care facilities need flexibility to protect vulnerable people in hospitals, long-term care and childcare settings. Several senators urged constituents to rely on existing federal and state processes for exemptions and accommodation rather than creating a new protected class in state law.

Because the amendment and the bill both failed, no changes to the North Dakota Century Code were adopted by this action. The Senate record shows committee review and floor debate under the fourteenth order; no final appropriations or implementation steps were adopted for HB 13-91.