As advocates for abortion rights and civil liberties prepare to file suit against the state of Tennessee if a restrictive fetal heartbeat bill becomes law, at least three Democrats are backing the controversial legislation.

One of the Democratic lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill to ban abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy even says he has waited a quarter-century to do so.

And it's a lack of "personal responsibility," says Rep. John DeBerry, that has contributed to the number of abortions taking place.

The bill, which has failed in previous years, has not yet been taken up in the Senate this session but passed in the House on a 65-21 vote. But if it does become law, it would be one of the most-restrictive abortion measures in the nation. Tennessee Right to Life opposes it due to questions over its constitutionality.

HEARTBEAT BILL:Behind the scenes of Tennessee's abortion battles, rifts exposed between advocates and lawmakers

"This was the first chance in 25 years that I had to go on record and say I disagree with abortion," said DeBerry, D-Memphis.

It's an issue on which his stance sharply diverges from his party and legislative caucus — members of which stood on the floor Thursday to decry the state's regulation of decisions women make about their bodies.

But DeBerry, who said he has not received criticism from fellow Democrats about his vote, believes that women could be taking more initiative to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

"I choose my battles, and I choose to give girls self esteem, self worth, to where they don’t feel that their bodies are just a vessel for somebody to play with and they don’t get themselves in that position," DeBerry said.

"I think that’s what’s being lost. Personal responsibility, pride, self esteem — it makes a person walk away from those situations that get them in this position. Because the woman ultimately has to bear the burden," he said. "The man walks away. The woman has to deal with it for the next nine months."

Tennessee Democratic Party chair Mary Mancini has said the state party's position is that women should be free to make their own decisions about receiving an abortion, and that the most effective way to reduce the number of abortions is through "age-appropriate reproductive health education, comprehensive health care and readily available and affordable contraception."

While DeBerry said he would have preferred to vote for the bill with an amendment permitting abortions in the case of rape or incest — an amendment that had been filed by a Democratic colleague but was shot down before it could be voted on — he still was supportive of the legislation.

"There hasn’t been another vote like this," DeBerry said of his time in the Tennessee legislature, where he has served since 1995. "There have been a lot of little ancillary votes here and there, chipping away (at abortion access)."

DeBerry, an ordained Church of Christ minister, said he has "stood against abortion consistently" since the 1970s. His father, who also was a preacher, spoke out against it too, DeBerry said.

Rep. John Mark Windle, D-Livingston, and Rep. Joe Towns, D-Memphis, were the only other Democrats to vote in favor of the heartbeat bill. Seven Republicans who were present on Thursday abstained from voting on the measure.

The state attorney general in 2017 released an opinion calling the heartbeat restriction "constitutionally suspect," prompting a similar bill that had been filed at the time to fail a week later.

TENNESSEE'S FETAL HEARTBEAT BILL:What you need to know

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.

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