On Tuesday, Utah Senator Orin Hatch announced a plan to introduce an amendment to the senate health care reform bill that he suggests would “mirror the Stupak language,” according to Politics Daily. However, he admits that unlike in the House version, he does not there to be much support for his version.

“It will be much more difficult in the Senate,” Hatch predicted.

He said he has already reached out to Democrats to get support for the measure, but said, “There are so few you can really turn to.”

This would not be the senator’s first attempt to restrict federal funding for abortion. In fact he tried a similar measure this summer in the Senate Finance Committee. However, this time he must try to woo senators under an increased amount of pressure as a result of backlash to the passing of the Stupak-Pitts amendment in the house.

Both of Hatch’s amendments were defeated at the committee level this summer, but did garner some Democratic support. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) voted with Hatch in the Finance Committee, which defeated the amendment 13 to 10. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) supported the Hatch amendment on the 11-12 vote in the HELP committee. During the Finance committee’s consideration of the Hatch amendment, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) warned the measure would be “a poison pill” for health care reform.

After suffering a stinging defeat with the House’s approval of the Stupak amendment, pro-choice activists have mobilized to prevent Senate passage of a similar measure. NARAL Pro-Choice America delivered petitions with more than 90,000 signatures opposing the Stupak amendment to Reid’s Senate office Monday, but the fate of the measure will come down to a handful of moderate senators who oppose either abortion or federal funding for it.

Today, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told Politics Daily he wants to see stronger language restricting federal funding for abortion services than exists in the committee-passed bills. Because Reid has not revealed specific language of his bill, it is not known how abortion is treated in the legislation. It would be difficult to remove language during the conference committee if it has already been passed by both the House and Senate.