FRANKFORT, Ky. — State Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, believes the government can do more to care for children, mothers and families. It’s what led him to file Senate Bill 34 during the first week of the 2024 legislative session.

What You Need To Know

  • State Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, has filed Senate Bill 34

  • It creates or improves several programs to help families in need

  • The bill allocates millions to help with childcare and housing for low-income families 

  • Westerfield believes SB 34 will have bipartisan support 

“From a public policy standpoint, we haven’t done enough and we’re 50 years behind where we should be,” Westerfield said, referencing the decades since the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade in 1973. 

Westerfield’s bill, dubbed the Advancing Lives for Pregnancy and Healthy Alternatives Act, creates or improves several state programs. The state senator, who is anti-abortion and the father of adopted children, believes his proposal is the best way to help those in need.  

“I wanted us to do something to prevent abortions that wasn’t just about banning abortions. That wasn’t just focused on the medical procedure, and in fact, this bill has nothing to do with that,” Westerfield explained. 

Here are some things SB 34 includes:

  • Creates a child care assistance program to help low-income families.
  • Funds a $10 million rental assistance program.
  • Waives post-secondary education tuition and fees for pregnant mothers and parents of a child under 18, who meet certain income-based criteria.
  • Adds 1,050 additional Michelle P. waiver slots, which help individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities to live independently.

“This bill is filled with and hopefully will spend large sums of money on building those services up and providing for families, particularly poorer families, that don’t have the means to provide for this for themselves so that they have the money that they need to buy groceries, which are now more expensive than they used to be, and gas which is more expensive than it used to be, and cars which are much more expensive than they used to be,” Westerfield said. 

He adds these programs would give pregnant mothers more options. 

“If the woman that is thinking about abortion because she’s worried she can’t make ends meet, suddenly is able to make ends meet, maybe she won’t consider abortion first,” Westerfield said. “Maybe she’ll think about both lives that are at stake and decide that she can do it, that the government is going to be there to help if she can’t make ends meet on her own.”

Westerfield adds he believes his bill has bipartisan support.

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