Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs bill to create 'monument to the unborn' on Arkansas Capitol grounds

Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders quietly signed into law on Thursday a bill that will create a "monument to the unborn" on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.

Sanders' team confirmed the bill signing in a release late Friday.

State Senate Bill 307, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Kim Hammer and Rep. Mary Bentley, allows for private funds "of gifts, grants, and donations from individuals and organizations" to pay for a monument to "unborn children aborted during the era of Roe v. Wade."

Once the monument is installed, it would then be maintained by taxpayer funds due to its location.

Bentley said its intent is to "remember those children we were not able to protect and we will not be able to forget."

Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, an organization that challenged the installation of a Ten Commandments monument on State Capitol grounds in 2017, called the move to place an anti-abortion monument there a "performative political stunt."

"Arkansas is ranked as one of the worst states in the nation for overall child well-being, maternal health, and the life expectancy among adults, yet the legislature has enacted dangerous limits and bans on reproductive healthcare. Lawmakers should be working to protect Arkansans with real solutions instead of this type of performative political stunt," Dickson said in a statement to ABC News.

A total ban on abortion, except to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency, took effect in Arkansas last June when the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

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But despite a super majority of Republicans in the legislature identifying with anti-abortion rights, the bill to make a monument enshrining Arkansans' aborted fetuses did not see unanimous support among Republicans in the state legislature.

The House passed the legislation Tuesday in a 60-19 vote with two Republicans voting "no." Ten Republicans didn't vote, and another ten Republicans voted "present," which has the same effect as voting no. When the bill moved through the state Senate last month, two Republicans didn't vote and one Republican voted present.

"From a Christian perspective, this has the look and feel of spiking the football," said state Rep. Steve Unger, a Republican who voted against the bill, on the House floor. "It looks like gloating."

"Public memorials to our nation's wars where we face an external threat are right and proper," he added. "A memorial to an ongoing culture war where we seem to be shooting at each other is not."

Unger told ABC News on Friday, "My comments reflected my beliefs, but I respect other convictions."