WASHINGTON — After spending the last few years butting heads with his most conservative members, House Speaker John Boehner has a new headache: a revolt by moderates.

Tired of staying quiet while tea-party-minded conservatives pull the Republican majority further to the right, more temperate voices are starting to rise in the new GOP-led Congress.

Female lawmakers pushed the party to drop Thursday’s planned vote on legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, forcing leaders to abruptly switch course and pass a different anti-abortion bill.

Last week, a surprisingly large group of 26 House Republicans refused to support an amendment that called for ending deportation deferrals of young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Those dissenters came within one vote of tanking the measure aimed at so-called Dreamers.

All the women leading the revolt this week emphasized that they opposed abortion, but they expressed concern over the bill’s language.

“It’s all about saving a baby,” said Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., who was involved in the talks. “There just are differing opinions about what should have been in the bill.”

The bill made exceptions to the 20-week ban in cases of incest, when the life of the mother was endangered or after “reportable” rapes, effectively requiring women to report the sexual assaults to police before they could obtain an abortion.

In its place Thursday, House Republicans passed another measure, 242 to 179, that restricts already-limited federal funding for abortions.