Gov. Patrick Morrisey ceremoniously signed three bills during an event at a Beckley, W.Va.,church Thursday, May 29, 2025. (West Virginia Office of Gov. Patrick Morrisey | Courtesy photo)
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Thursday celebrated the passage of three bills he said protect and defend life “at all stages.” Morrisey held the ceremonial bill signing for Senate Bill 537, House Bill 2123 and House Bill 2871 at CrossPoint Church in Beckley, West Virginia.
“West Virginia has a proud history defending the sanctity of life for a long, long time, and I’ve been very humbled to be an important part of that, serving as the first pro-life attorney general in state history,” Morrisey said. “And before I left, we were still busy defending the state’s pro-life law in the Fourth Circuit. That’s still pending, and we’ve been working constantly to try to keep expanding the provisions to protect innocent life.”
Senate Bill 537 expands the state’s Mothers and Babies Pregnancy Support Program. The legislation allows the program to use state funds to cover new expenditures including new land and buildings, additional services for mothers, and staff training, Morrisey said. The Legislature also allocated $3 million for the program.
“The goal behind that money and this bill is to give organizations that help pregnant women greater flexibility in using their funds,” Morrisey said. “What a good, noble cause.”
The West Virginia Mothers and Babies Pregnancy Support Program was established by House Bill 2002, signed by former Gov. Jim Justice during the 2023 legislative session.
State lawmakers passed a law making abortion illegal with narrow exceptions in September 2022 in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down Roe V. Wade. The program provides funding for “pregnancy support organizations” except those “that performs, prescribes, refers for, encourages or promotes abortion as an option for a pregnant woman.”
House Bill 2123 increases the penalties for a parents or guardians convicted of child abuse resulting in injury or neglect causing the risk of injury from one to five years in prison to two to 10 years in prison. The bill had unanimous support in both the West Virginia House of Delegates and in the Senate.
“Once again, we have to protect our most precious among us, and if you harm a child as a parent or guardian, you’re going to pay a heavy price,” Morrisey said.
House Bill 2871 expands the vehicular homicide offense to include aggravated vehicular homicide and clarifies that victims can include embryos and fetuses. The bill was also passed unanimously by both chambers of the Legislature.
“Now, the loss of a child in a womb, that can be considered a death for purposes of prosecution,” Morrisey said. “That’s good, and that’s just common sense. A life in the womb is still a life. Our laws have to reflect that fact, and they are.”
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