The House voted on Tuesday to stop Republican leaders from blocking an impending vote on proxy voting for new parents -- now leaving the House paralyzed after several Republicans joined Democrats to torpedo a procedural rule to advance the petition in a package of Republican bills. The vote failed 206-222, with nine Republicans siding with a unanimous Democratic caucus to form an unusual bipartisan coalition -- throwing the House in a temporary paralysis with the surprise development. The joint rule they voted on would have blocked Rep. Anna Paulina Luna's bipartisan discharge petition to allow proxy voting for new lawmaker parents -- both new mothers and fathers -- up to 12 weeks after giving birth. Luna had a child in 2023 as she was serving in Congress. Republican Reps. Luna, Kevin Kiley, Tim Burchett, Jeff Van Drew, Greg Steube, Mike Lawler, Ryan Mackenzie, Nick LaLota and Max Miller all voted to defy Speaker Mike Johnson, who has argued the effort is unconstitutional. "We worked as a team and I think that today is a pretty historical day for the entire conference," Luna told ABC News' Jay O'Brien after the vote. "It's showing that the body has decided that parents deserve a voice in Washington, and also to the importance of female members having a hope in Washington, D.C." Democratic Reps. Brittany Pettersen and Sara Jacobs introduced the effort with Luna and Republican Rep. Lawler in January. After the vote, Pettersen praised Luna as a "fierce champion." "We're changing the way that Congress works, making sure that moms and parents have a voice, and I'm just so proud to be a part of this," Pettersen, who held her 9-week-old son, said -- adding a profane message for Johnson: "Don't f--- with moms." House Republican leaders, including Johnson, had said they would take the unprecedented step to block Luna's petition -- the latest move in a weekslong internal House GOP clash. After the vote, House GOP leaders canceled votes for the rest of the week. Johnson said because the rule vote failed, "we can't have any further action on the floor this week." "It's disappointing. A handful of Republicans joined with all the Democrats to take down a rule that's rarely done. It's very unfortunate," Johnson said after the vote. Luna said she was motivated to bring the legislation forward to "change" Congress "for the better" and bring give more "young American parents" a seat at the table. Pettersen spoke in favor of Luna's resolution on the House floor Tuesday as she held her 9-week-old son, Sam. As Sam cooed, squealed, squeaked and cried in his mother's arms, Pettersen -- with a burp cloth slung over her shoulder -- pleaded for bipartisan cooperation to "modernize Congress" and address life events for lawmakers. "No mom or dad should be in the position that I was in and so many parents have found themselves in. It is anti-woman, it's anti-family and we need to come together," she said on the House floor. Pettersen is only the 13th member of the House to have given birth while serving in Congress -- and returning to Washington after her son was born prematurely meant she "faced an impossible decision." "We have a long ways to go to make this place accessible for young families like mine," Pettersen said. "For all of the parents here, we know that when we have newborns, it's when they're the most vulnerable in their life. It's when they need 24-7 care." Pettersen said Sam slept through the vote, adding, "I can't wait to tell him what he's been a part of." Luna received 218 signatures on her resolution -- enough needed to force the House to vote on the measure. Lawmakers use discharge petitions to circumvent leadership, who determine what legislation comes to the floor. Ohio Rep. Miller, who voted against the rule, said in a post on X, "I could not in good conscience vote for an unprecedented rule that would pull the rug out from under Representative Luna's discharge petition that got the required signatures fair and square." Rep. Lawler said in a statement on X that "Rep. Luna followed the rules and secured the support of a majority of the House to discharge her bill. To change the rules midstream is wrong and undermines the House. Furthermore, it sets a dangerous precedent one we will regret in the future." Johnson and Luna have been at odds over proxy voting for new parents. Johnson has argued that proxy voting is the start of a slippery slope that could lead to more and more members voting remotely. Proxy voting was used during the COVID-19 pandemic, which many Republicans were against. "The speaker is charged with protecting the integrity of the institution, and that's what this was about," Johnson said after the vote, later saying there are "emotional reasons for doing what they're doing, but we're going to keep governing. This is a small reason, thin majority, and we have to build consensus on everything. And I wish they'd not taken this course." Johnson has said proxy voting "opens Pandora's box where, ultimately, maybe no one is here, and we're all voting remotely by AI or something." "This is a deliberative body. You cannot deliberate with your colleagues if you're out somewhere else. Now, there are family circumstances that make it difficult for people to attend votes. I understand that. I've had them myself," Johnson said last week. House Republicans were slated to vote on several bills this week including the "No Rogue Rulings Act" and the "SAVE Act," but those bills won't receive a vote now that the schedule for the week has been scrapped. It's unclear what leadership will do next. The vote came a day after Luna resigned from the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus over her legislation, according to a letter obtained by ABC News. "With a heavy heart, I am resigning from the Freedom Caucus. I cannot remain part of a caucus where a select few operate outside its guidelines, misuse its name, broker backroom deals that undermine its core values and where the lines of compromise and transaction are blurred, disparage me to the press, and encourage misrepresentation of me to the American people," she wrote in the letter. ABC News' Lalee Ibssa and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.