JEFFERSON CITY � In an early-morning deal, Senate Republicans agreed to give up two items at the top of the agenda for their conservative supporters, and Democrats agreed to stop blocking two others in an effort to maintain civil relations in the upper chamber during the session's final days.

The Senate, on a 22-9 vote, passed a bill tripling the waiting period for abortions from 24 to 72 hours. That was followed by a 22-8 vote for a constitutional amendment allowing six days of early voting, a measure designed to be an alternative to a ballot initiative requiring six weeks of early voting before every election.

Senate Republicans agreed to drop efforts to limit the use of public employee union dues for political purposes, called "paycheck protection," and a measure to require voters to show government-issued identification with a photo to cast a ballot.

Sen. David Sater, sponsor of the abortion measure, said the compromise prevented Republicans from using a rule known as the previous question to shut off debate. Its use is common in the House, but it has not been used in the Senate since 2007.

"We were almost ready," Sater, R-Cassville, said this morning. "It is the last thing in the world we would want to do, but we were up against the wall."

The Senate resumed work at 9:30 p.m. after a dinner break that included a barbecue hosted by Gov. Jay Nixon. When the evening session began, Democrats discussed whether Republicans would be willing to force them to stop. Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, said the GOP leadership was scared to use the previous question rule.

"I don't think they will do it," she said. "I don't think they will disrupt the Senate."

After the Senate took a break for a late-night Republican caucus, Democrats quickly stepped aside to allow a vote. Continuing the filibuster on the abortion measure would jeopardize work on several other major bills, including one setting rules for students transferring from unaccredited school districts.

"I am at a crossroads in the process," said Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton. "By pursuing this debate further at this time, I am convinced that there are the votes in this room to force a vote and that continuing would be counterproductive."

The two bills dropped from consideration were top items on the conservative agenda. The paycheck protection bill, which would require union employees to give written permission annually to allow their dues to be used for political donations, had passed narrowly in the House. The photo identification measure has been a priority for the GOP since 2006.

House Majority Leader John Diehl, R-Town and Country, said this morning that he would not second-guess the Senate Republicans for their compromise. "It doesn't matter if it is satisfactory to me," he said. "They are the Senate leaders, and I respect and support whatever decision they made."

Opponents of the abortion measure said they were disappointed that Senate Democrats allowed the vote.

"This harmful legislation would require Missouri women to schedule time off work, childcare, and travel to the state's only remaining abortion provider over the course of multiple days, despite the fact that under current state law, women must receive counseling information, sign a consent form stating that their decision to end a pregnancy is free and voluntary, and wait at least 24 hours to get an abortion," Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri said in a news release.

Republicans defending the bill said they wanted women seeking an abortion to give more time to their decision because it might lead some to change their mind.

"We are giving years, if not decades, before we put to death somebody who is guilty of a crime, and yet we let the mother take the life of that unborn child," said Sen. John Lamping. The measure will help, he said, if "in those extra 48 hours the mother comes to a realization that it is a life she is taking."

The abortion measure wasn't, for most Republicans, the most important of the two bills passed this morning, Sater said. The early voting proposal, which would appear alongside the initiative on the November ballot if approved in the House, was a higher priority, he said.

Initiative supporters turned in more than 300,000 signatures to place it on the ballot.

If two measures amending the same sections of the constitution are on the ballot, the one receiving the most votes becomes law if both pass.

This article was published in the Tuesday, May 13, 2014 edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Senators find compromise;�Measures pass after early-morning deal."