DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A legislative effort by Iowa Republicans to outlaw abortion in the state has failed to advance past a legislative procedural deadline. The so-called personhood bill was kept off the agenda of a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday. The committee needed to vote on the measure for it to survive a deadline that requires certain legislative action on policy bills.

Republican Sen. Brad Zaun, committee chairman and co-sponsor of the bill, says he didn’t have enough votes to advance the legislation. Anti-abortion rights groups had rallied around the personhood bill this session amid new GOP control of the Legislature.

Republican lawmakers are still considering a separate bill that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. A House committee was meeting Thursday to vote on that bill.