Lawmakers in Uruguay did not raise enough votes to overturn a presidential veto of a bill that would have decriminalized abortion after a 70-year ban, legislators told AFP Thursday.

After a heated debate, the Senate and House of Representatives were unable to reach the three-fifths required vote in each chamber to override the veto, legislator Jaime Trobo said.

The bill, which passed Congress earlier this month and was hailed by some lawmakers as a milestone, would have allowed women to end their pregnancy in the first 12 weeks of gestation because of economic, family or age reasons.

In addition, abortion would have been legal for health, deformation or risk to the mother's life.

Last week it was vetoed by President Tabare Vazquez, after the Roman Catholic church voiced "deep discomfort" with the bill.

Vazquez, also a doctor by profession, had announced that he would veto the Law of Sexual and Reproductive Health, because it included elements "with which I disagree, philosophically and biologically."

Some ruling party lawmakers tried but failed to win Vazquez's support for the bill. They also failed to get his support in proposing a referendum on the measure.

A recent poll showed 57 percent of Uruguayans support access to abortion while 42 percent oppose it.