Three South Carolina senators on Wednesday voted to advance legislation effectively banning abortion in the state, the Post and Courier reports.

Republican Sens. Mike Gambrell, Scott Talley and Rex Rice all voted to push through a “personhood” bill which would define a person as a fertilized egg, also known as a zygote. The male senators overruled two female colleagues who sat on the committee, green-lighting the bill for debate in the full Senate Judiciary Committee.

As the Post and Courier reports, the committee heard from both supporters and critics of the bill. The former invoked the Holocaust and Thomas Jefferson, as well as their own personal religious beliefs, to argue in favor of the “personhood” bill. One candidate in a current South Carolina special state election argued the bill is similar to the state’s decision to remove the Confederate Flag after the Charleston church massacre on 2014.