The measure would have banned abortion after the first fetal heartbeat is detected.

Applause broke out in the Ohio Senate gallery on Thursday after legislators fell one vote short in an effort to outlaw abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected - as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

The Senate needed 20 votes to override Gov. John Kasich's veto of the "fetal heartbeat" legislation. Without debate, 19 senators voted to override the veto.

Kasich vetoed the bill, fearing it would mire Ohio in costly litigation.

The House voted 61-28 - enough to to override the veto and outlaw abortion once a heartbeat is detected.

The fetal heartbeat bill sparked passionate debate on the House floor. Democrats slammed the bill.

"This will be the most extreme, anti-women, anti-choice bill that this country will see," said Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes, D-Akron.

Soon after, Ohio Right to Life, the state's largest anti-abortion organization, released a statement supporting the bill. Ohio Right to Life declined to support the measure for years, opting to push an incremental approach to restricting abortion until the U.S. Supreme Court could reverse the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Pay raises

Ohio legislators will get a pay raise after all.

The Ohio General Assembly voted Thursday morning to overturn Gov. John Kasich's veto of pay raises for elected officials. The Senate voted 25-6 and the House 70-16.

It is one of several possible issues on which the Republican-controlled legislature would rebuke Ohio's outgoing GOP governor.

Some of the Ohio legislative session’s testiest issues — guns and abortion — may yet see reversals before year’s end.

Ohio House spokesman Brad Miller says “everything is on the table.”

The pay increases were attached to death benefit increases for slain public safety officers, prompting Kasich to label it “a grubby money bill.”

Supporters described the increase as a small cost of living adjustment annually, equal to $13,000 over the next 10 years. It's been 10 years since lawmakers last had a raise.

Also getting raises under the bill: the governor and other statewide elected officials, judges, prosecutors, sheriffs, other county officials and township officials. That will encourage other people to run for office, said Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark.

"We're taking minor, modest steps here over the course of time," Hottinger said.

Kasich vs. fellow Republicans

Kasich, a 2016 presidential candidate, is weighing another White House bid in 2020. He has said a media job may be in his short-term plans.

It was unclear how motivated lawmakers would be to override Kasich on the heartbeat bill, which he has vetoed twice over concerns it is unconstitutional and would put Ohio on the hook for a costly court battle.

He vetoed the gun legislation more for what it lacked than for what it contained. In a veto message, Kasich called it “baffling and unconscionable” that lawmakers wouldn’t even debate a so-called “red flag” law, for example, that would allow gun rights to be temporarily stripped from people who show warning signs of violence.

He noted that “even the National Rifle Association” supports the concept.