WASHINGTON (TNND) — An effort by House Speaker Mike Johnson to block parents from voting remotely after giving birth failed Tuesday after nine Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting his plan.

Proxy voting was first put in place during the COVID-19 lockdowns when Democrats had control of Congress.

Johnson was defeated in a 206-222 vote after trying to prevent the bipartisan plan from two new mothers - Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado.

Petterson spoke in front of the House with a burp cloth over her shoulder and her 4-month-old son in her arms as she pleaded with her colleagues to stop the GOP leadership's effort to stop their resolution.

"Today, my son Sam and I showed Speaker Johnson why you don't mess with moms," Rep Petterson wrote on X. "Thanks to overwhelming bipartisan support, we stopped the Speaker’s attempt to kill our resolution to allow new parents in Congress to vote remotely. This is a major step forward in our fight to remove barriers that make it difficult for new parents to serve in Congress, and I’m incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made."

Some 218 lawmakers backed their effort, signing on to a so-called discharge petition to force their proposal on the House floor for consideration. Luna used the discharge petition process to force the proxy-voting proposal to the floor.

Republicans argued that Luna did not go through the regular process of waiting for their resolution to be brought to the floor through normal procedure and criticized the temporary proxy voting policy that Democrats put in place during the pandemic, which they said was abused by member absences.

The new resolution, which includes specific procedures on how the new parent would deliver voting instructions, would mean a change in their House rules.

The resolution from the mothers allows proxy voting for lawmakers who have given birth or pregnant lawmakers who are unable to travel safely or have a serious medical condition. It also applies to lawmakers whose spouses are pregnant or giving birth.

Under the resolution, qualifying lawmakers may designate a proxy to cast a vote for them for up to 12 weeks.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.