AUSTIN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — Texas Republicans have proposed erecting a statue on capitol grounds to commemorate the sanctity of life and the Lone Star State’s work to protect it from abortion.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the Texas Life Monument, depicting a mother cradling a preborn child in a womb, would resemble the National Life Monument at Rome’s Church of San Marcello al Corso. It would join 22 other monuments adorning the capitol.
“The monument would provide a communal space for honoring the dignity of human life and the role of mothers – values that resonate deeply with many, many Texans,” said Republican state Sen. Tan Parker.
The statute has already been completed, thanks to private donations. The resolution to approve its placement passed on Thursday in the Texas Senate and is currently pending before the Texas House, which failed to pass a similar proposal in 2023.
The vast majority of abortions are illegal in Texas, but the state is still dealing with the problem of out-of-state actors using pills to circumvent Texas law, facilitating abortions that take place completely in private. Earlier this year, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York abortionist for mailing abortion-inducing drugs into the state, securing an order that imposed a $100,000 fine.
The Texas Senate recently passed SB 2880, which would make it broadly illegal to “manufacture, possess, or distribute an abortion-inducing drug in this state,” as well as to help facilitate their acquisition. It would complement another bill proposed in March, the Woman and Child Protection Act, which would impose civil liability on anyone distributing abortion pills in the Lone Star State.
Twelve states currently ban all or most abortions. But the abortion lobby is working feverishly to cancel out those deterrents via deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and embedding abortion “rights” in state constitutions.