On Tuesday, April 8, the House passed SB 357 by a vote of 99-0, and yesterday the Senate passed it by a vote of 31-0.
The bill amends the Support for Mothers and Babies Act, and is one of two priority legislative agenda items for West Virginians for Life in the current session. The lead sponsor was Brian Helton, and co-sponsors were Scott Fuller, Patricia Rucker, Rollan Roberts, Tom Willis, Vince Deeds, and Chris Rose.
The Support for Mothers and Babies Program, which the Legislature created in 2023, now serves West Virginians in all 55 counties and has brought in over 4,000 new clients to pro-life pregnancy help organizations. Last year, through this vehicle, the Legislature graciously granted $3 million dollars in funding for pro-life pregnancy help organizations. Pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, and family support networks have registered to receive funding to better serve their communities. None of these organizations refer for, commit, or in any way support the abortion industry.
Please subscribe to the LifeNews YouTube channel for the latest pro-life videos.
As originally passed, the Support for Mothers and Babies Program distributed funds on a fee-for-service basis, meaning that the pregnancy help organization had to first provide the service, and then seek reimbursement.
This worked well for established organizations. However, the funds were not available for start-up costs to establish new centers, nor for things like the purchase of an ultrasound machine, or the repair of a roof on a maternity home. SB 357 remedied the problem by adding eligible expenses to the program. It allows distributions to cover facility needs, training costs of staff and volunteers, and other large capital expenditures necessary to expand services.
The support given to the bill was outstanding.
West Virginians for Life Legislative Director Sadie Keaton said, “There has never been a more exciting time to be pro-life in West Virginia! Nearly all mothers and babies are protected from abortion, which allows us to shift our focus from passing laws that protect them from the abortion industry to providing women with what they need to support themselves and their babies.”
The post West Virginia Banned Abortions, Now It’s Helping Thousands of Moms and Babies appeared first on LifeNews.com.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Alicia Martin
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.lifenews.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
