AUSTIN — State Sen. Wendy Davis on Wednesday proposed ending the statute of limitations for sexual assault in Texas, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s latest attempt to broaden her criticism of Republican opponent Greg Abbott as a governor who would not advocate for rape victims.

Rolling out the proposal at a news conference in Dallas, Davis framed it as an extension of her work in the Legislature on behalf of sexual assault victims, the central theme of a statewide tour she launched after releasing her first TV ad for the general election. The commercial, which went on the air about a week and a half ago, accuses Abbott of “siding with a corporation over a rape victim” as a state Supreme Court justice, a claim his campaign has dismissed as “despicable” and used to highlight his own efforts to address the issue.

“While the bills I authored are helping to address the backlog of rape kits, the fact that we would throw survivors’ trauma and courage on a shelf for months or years without a second thought is offensive to them and to everything we say we stand for,” Davis told reporters Wednesday, according to her campaign. “But then to turn around and make survivors pay the price for our failure and neglect by denying them justice is almost criminal in itself.”

In most cases, current law in Texas says someone can’t be prosecuted for a sexual assault that happened more than 10 years ago. In announcing the proposal, the Davis campaign cited a number of cases in which men confessed to or identified as assaulting women, but didn’t face prosecution because the statute of limitations ran out.

Abbott’s campaign has pointed out that he rolled out a plan to address sexual violence months ago, including a proposal to prioritize DNA testing for rape cases over other types of crimes. Responding to Davis’ news conference Wednesday, Abbott spokeswoman Amelia Chasse reiterated that “victims of sexual assault in Texas have no greater advocate than Greg Abbott, who as Attorney General has spearheaded the arrests of over 4,500 sex offenders and awarded over $1 billion to victims of crimes like sexual assault and domestic violence.”