Texas, the country's second most-populous state, will be the largest to criminalize abortions if a pro-life bill makes its way past the state Senate.

When combined in a state 773 miles wide and 790 miles long and with 26 million people, the measures would become the most stringent set of laws to impact the largest number of people in the nation, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

The bill was pushed to a floor vote by Republicans on Monday but Democrats are attempting to filibuster the legislation that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force clinics that perform the procedure to change their facilities.

Democrats, Planned Parenthood and women's rights groups across the state are banding together to fight the Republican-backed bill.

"We want to do whatever we can for women in this state," Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin, leader of the Senate Democrats, told the Christian Science Monitor.

"If this passes, abortion would be virtually banned in the state of Texas, and many women could be forced to resort to dangerous and unsafe measures," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and daughter of the late former Texas governor Ann Richards, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

The 30-day special legislative session ends at midnight on Tuesday, meaning Democrats are doing as much as they can to resist the passing of the bill while the Republicans, who dominate the state Senate, are trying to avoid a filibuster.

The law would also require doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.