NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The House was thrown into chaos on Thursday over a failed Republican maneuver to try to resurrect an anti-abortion amendment.

Video: Chaotic Scene Breaks Out On Capitol Hill

Rep. Bill Dunn, a Knoxville Republican, attached a measure to bring the anti-abortion amendment to the floor to an unrelated resolution on legislative meeting times.

The abortion proposal seeks to change the state constitution to eliminate many protections for abortion rights.

In 2000, the state Supreme Court ruled that abortion is protected by law. Anti-abortion groups said that is keeping the state from enforcing a 48-hour waiting period, having informed consent and a requirement that all second trimester abortions be performed in a hospital.

The proposed amendment would change all that. It had passed the Senate but failed in a House subcommittee.

Speaker Jimmy Naifeh attempted to disallow Dunn's attempt, but the powerful Democrat was overruled by a 46-47 vote.

Eight Democrats joined all 43 Republicans present to attach Dunn's amendment to the resolution, but the version ultimately failed to gain the 66 votes needed to pass.

During a debate about the amendment, anti-abortion protesters sneaked in, which caused an uproar, Channel 4's Cara Kumari reported. At one point, Naifeh halted all proceedings.

Even though the word abortion never came up in Thursday's debate, the exercise in procedural chaos was all about it.

"This is getting really silly, and we've got a whole lot of folks here watching this process," one lawmaker said.

The motion to amend a resolution only takes a majority vote while the motion to suspend House rules to change meeting times takes a two-thirds majority vote to pass.

"I was hoping they wanted their motion so bad they would accept mine and vote for it," Dunn said afterward. "I was trying to hook my caboose to their train. ... I tried to go where I only needed 50 (votes)."

House Democratic leader Gary Odom, who sponsored the original motion, called the move "partisan gamesmanship at its worst."

"It was a complete waste of our time debating this parliamentary quagmire," he said.

Dunn later acknowledged that the parliamentary rules should have prevented the amendment from being attached to the unrelated resolution and said he would not do so again.

Rep. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville, is the original sponsor of the anti-abortion amendment. She later took to the well of the chamber to criticize the House subcommittee's move to kill the resolution she had sponsored.

"The voice of six in a subcommittee silenced 6 million," she said.

"When we refuse to hear their voice, we carry out something that is a horrible, horrible task," Gresham said. "That is: We corrupt the framework of our government."

But after her comments, Gresham declined to take a vote on bringing the resolution to a full floor vote.

"I make no motion on this bill," she said.

Rep. Kent Williams, R-Elizabethton, was critical of the legislative maneuvers over the abortion resolution.

"What sticks in my craw is when we have members that use such an important and delicate issue for political reasons, to promote themselves to move up the ladder in political circles," he said.

Supporters said their fight is over for the session, but that it's not over for good.

"It's not going happen this year but I can tell you, there's an old Marine Corps saying that goes: 'Retreat? Hell, I'm just attacking in a different direction,'" said Gresham.

The earliest that the proposal would be able to be put on a ballot for voters would now be the year 2014.