The Tennessee House on Monday fell 13 votes short of the 66 votes needed to pass a motion to move to the full House an abortion-related constitutional amendment (SJR 127) that had been rejected by a subcommittee, the Tennessean reports (Cheek/Paine, Tennessean, 5/11). The constitutional amendment, which was approved by the state Senate last month, would have specified that the state constitution does not protect a woman's right to an abortion. However, the amendment would have no effect unless the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. State Sen. David Fowler (R) originally introduced the amendment in response to a 2000 state Supreme Court ruling that struck down several abortion restrictions in the state. State Rep. Mike Turner (D), who sponsored the measure in the state House, last month withdrew the proposed amendment after he failed to gain enough support in the state House Health and Human Resources Committee (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 4/30). Amendment supporters had hoped to use the procedural motion to allow the bill to be considered by the full state House. The House voted 53-36 in support of the motion, but House rules require 66 votes to override a subcommittee decision, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports. If the House had approved the motion, which was sponsored by state Rep. Diane Black (R), a separate vote would have been held on whether to approve the amendment, the News-Sentinel reports. If the resolution had been approved this year, the state House and Senate would have had to approve the measure again in the next legislative session before the proposed amendment could be placed on the 2006 ballot. As a result of Monday's House vote, the earliest Tennessee voters could consider the measure is 2010 because an amendment to the Tennessee constitution can be put on the ballot only in years when the state is voting for governor, according to the News-Sentinel (Humphrey, Knoxville News-Sentinel, 5/11).