CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Senate voted Thursday not to treat a fetus that dies in a homicide as a person.

The Senate rejected measures that treated an eight-week-old fetus and a fetus that could survive outside the womb as persons. Finally, the Senate effectively killed the bill by tabling it. Senate President Chuck Morse said he did not expect it to be taken up again this session.

Supporters argued a fetus’ death should be a crime if the mother lives and insisted granting legal status to a fetus in a homicide would not affect a woman’s right to obtain an abortion.

State Rep. Leon Rideout filed the bill after his daughter lost her baby in a traffic accident, but the House replaced it with one that instead allowed judges to impose stiffer sentences if the woman is pregnant when she dies.

Rideout, R-Lancaster, had insisted his bill had nothing to do with abortion and included a provision excluding pregnant women obtaining abortions from being penalized. Rideout proposed initially applying the penalty after the eighth week of pregnancy but offered an amendment to make it after the 12th week. The House rejected both.

A minority in the Senate tried to replace the House-approved bill with Rideout’s idea of granting personhood status to an eight-week-old fetus.

Sen. Nancy Stiles, R-Hampton, objected that doctors who perform emergency abortions could be charged with murder if they failed to get the mother’s consent under the proposal.

Sen. Jeff Woodburn, D-Dalton, also argued the bill would erode a woman’s right to obtain an abortion regardless what bill supporters maintained.

“Women, not the government, have the right to decide what to do with their bodies,” he said.

Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, said that the bill was not about abortion but about pregnant women who lose a wanted child due to the actions of someone else.

After the proposal died on a 13-10 vote, Senate Republican Leader Jeb Bradley offered to amend the bill to give a fetus legal standing upon viability.

Currently, if an assault results in a miscarriage or stillbirth and the mother survives, a judge can sentence the assailant to up to 15 years in prison. Bradley said that was not a stiff enough sentence for causing the death of a fetus.

“It is simply wrong to say the maximum for a crime like that is assault,” said Bradley of Wolfeboro.

Opponents said the proposal was unclear.

The Senate voted 12-11 to reject it.

The House’s version of the bill would allow enhanced sentences to the homicide law for crimes resulting in the mother’s death. In the case of second-degree murder, which is punishable by life in prison, the judge would have to state he or she had considered the miscarriage or stillbirth in deciding on a sentence.

NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire opposed Rideout’s bill as a step toward granting personhood to fetuses and laying the groundwork for limiting abortions.

At least 38 states have fetal homicide laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.