What do you think about "baby safe haven" laws.?

Question

What do you think about "baby safe haven" laws.?

Answer 1

Legalized abandonment?  No, not good, why encourage that for goodness sakes

There is NO evidence to prove they decrease abandonment or infanticide

I totally concur with what Laurie says

Answer 2

I would want to know some statistics on if this has really provided any benefit. I would like to hear from women / girls who've done this and how they've been affected. I would like to know if it was their decision alone, or were they forced into it.

It could be just another name for what was called the "baby scoop" era. Parents, who make decisions for their daughters, and the girls have no say.

Then there's always a reality check. Any woman who can give their baby up and walk away without having any emotional problems, is missing a "chip". They shouldn't be around babies. I really think that is very rare.

I think we need to have a "safe haven" for all mothers who are displaced because they lack support. I think they need to be able to go to a loving, nurturing home and helped emotionally and financially. Shown how they can make it work. Once the child is born, they should be given ample time to bond with the baby and maybe their family will have a change of heart and all will be well. If the mother receives all the counseling she needs and really doesn't want to parent, then so be it.

Answer 3

Hi Blessed,

While originally well-intended, Baby Safe Haven laws have ended up being another way to recruit infants for adoption.  Statistics prove the number of abandoned infants each year has stayed approximately the same, not been reduced at all since baby safe haven laws started, yet the adoption system continues to benefit from gaining additional babies this way.  This is because the people who would abandon their infants to die are not the same ones who would take their infants to one of the safe haven places.  The babies who are taken there are not the same babies who would have ended up abandoned in a dumpster or public restroom.  The safe haven babies are warmly wrapped with care in blankets.  Bottles or toys are often included.  Those babies are not the ones who would have been left out to die someplace.

The reason baby safe haven laws are so popular among the pro-adoption community is because there is almost no chance of the natural mother reclaiming her baby.  The baby is easily freed for adoption with virtually no questions asked.  Coveted healthy, white infants are produced as if through a free vending machine, all under the pretense of having saved them from some predicted death.  It's also an easy sell to the general public who knows little about the reality of adoption.

These are very cruel laws for adoptees.  They target scared, young parents who could make an impulsive decision without thinking their options through first, and encourage them to abandon their babies without leaving important information that the baby will want and need as he/she grows up.  It is even worse for the child than going through a traditional adoption.  For example, there is no chance of retrieving medical information, exact date & time of birth, ethnic identity, religion, siblings, extended family, the list goes on & on.  Traditional adoptees in most cases are at least able to obtain what they call non-identifying information.  If a child is left at a baby safe haven, he/she will have no chance, and that definately will effect him/her.  Worst of all, it deprives a child of having the opportunity to grow up and be loved by his/her natural parents or extended family who may want the child.  

I am not in favor of baby safe haven laws.  If a family feels they cannot care for an infant, they should be encouraged to get counseling, to learn of all the resources available to assist them, or as a last resort, go through the proper chanels to relinquish the child for adoption so the child will have all his/her information later.  Legalized abandonment is an unnecessary, permanent solution to temporary circumstances.

I feel a better option if we really wanted to help young, scared mothers would be to offer a crisis nursery service, which many cities already do.  This is an emergency place where a parent can safely bring their baby for a few days to take care of whatever issues or problems they are dealing with, and then legally come back when they are ready to care for their child.  Sometimes it's an illness, sometimes they need referrals to other resources in the community.  Rarely, if ever, do the parents and child need to be separated from each other permanently and anonymously forever.  I do not think abandonment should be encouraged.

Thanks for asking,

julie j

reunited adoptee

Answer 4

Here are the stats before and after safe haven laws in California, up to 2005.  These numbers came directly from the coroners' offices in 54 of our 58 counties.  Safe haven laws have NOT decreased the numbers of babies found abandoned dead.  What they do manage to do is circumvent the adoption process already in place.  Although the vast majority of women still use the relinquishment and adoption processes we have, some have used safe haven instead.  Women who give birth and then say they aren't sure they can parent are often told by hospital staff, "Well, just safe haven the child.'

It is nothing more than legalized abandonment and is not in the best interests of the child.  

Women who abandon their children and/or commit infanticide have issues far different from women who are likely to use safe havens.  The babies found left in safe haven usually leave the baby clothed, in blanket and baby carriers, often with toys and notes.  Clearly, these are not babies who were in danger of infanticide/abandonment.  Think about it, if a woman was planning on just dumping the child in a dumpster, so to speak, why would she bother to take the child to a safe haven?  She wouldn't.  And, the numbers show she doesn't.

Here's a chart of the California stats:

http://lauriejeans.com/AB81/AB81stat.pdf

What kind of society have we become when we not only legalize, but actually encourage, child abandonment?

eta:

Safe havens are publicized on TV, radio, in the newspapers, by school counselors, in hospitals.  Those who favor them have been using the excuse that they aren't publicized enough to explain away the fact that the numbers show no decrease in the number of dead abandoned babies found.  Here in my town, there was a news story about an infant killed by her mother just this week.  Infanticide is very, very rare, as is evidenced by the numbers.  This has always been the case.  But safe havens have done nothing to change the fact that this rare even still occurs in the same numbers.  Safe havens do not attract the few women who commit infanticide.

Answer 5

The executive chair of b*****d Nation, Marley Greiner, is an expert on 'safe haven' laws.  Since BN came out against these laws the American Adoption Congress, Concerned United Birth Parents, Origins-USA, and Ethica have followed suit.

To hear Marley discuss this topic in full, listen to her being interviewed on this week's Adoption Show.

http://www.theadoptionshow.com/home2.php

Answer 6

I am totally in favor of them.  I think the main reason that they don't help more infants is because they are not widely publicized.  They need to be publicized better!  

Remember, we're not talking about women who WANT their babies.  We're talking about women who might otherwise consider leaving their child in a dumpster or on a street corner.  If more women KNEW that all they had to do was take the child into a police station, and no one would require them to even give a name, then maybe some of those babies would survive.  

Newborns are still found murdered or abandoned all the time.  If SafeHaven laws save even one, isn't it worth it?  

To those who say that this is "just another way to get babies" for adoption...  you're VERY wrong.  So far, SafeHaven laws have brought in very few babies.  This is because not many people really know about them, or understand the legal implications for how things work.  I agree with you that it's sad those children will have almost no records, aside from what can be jotted down by whoever accepts the baby while a scared mother is trying to "get out of there".  However, as long as adoptees are pushing to make it harder for mothers to give up their children without "hassle" or being "found out", then there are going to be a number of young women who have babies secretly and then have to do "something" with the child.  A coworker of mine had a cousin in that situation.  Her cousin killed the baby.  This is a girl from a middle-class white neighborhood...  a cheerleader in high school.  If the girl had known that there was a legal way to easily and secretly get rid of the baby, might her child still be alive somewhere?  I know it has to hurt not to have any records of where you came from, but as long as you're still deciding to breathe, you have to admit that life is better than death.  

I think SafeHaven laws are the right way to go!  We need to "get the message" out there.  It should be part of SexEd classes in school.  There should be posters on high sschool bulletin boards, and on the walls of subway stations.  Scared girls need to know they have a legal way out!

btw - Babies dropped off at safe havens aren't adopted out the next day.  There is a time delay to make sure they don't show up on any missing person reports, and in some states it is only the mother of the child that can drop the baby off.

Answer 7

To be honest, I have a lot of negative thoughts about these laws.  I find it awful enough for regular domestic infant adoption sealing all records of births, but even with reform, what good would it do a safe haven adoptee.  To not even have a basic original birth certificate is just completely not right in my own opinion.

I also have issues like others have replied about who is the one abandoning the child.  Is it really the mother?  What about paternal rights?  The whole thing is just a mish mosh of ethics.

I also have concerns about the statistics not showing a difference in baby dumping/deaths for these laws to be needed.

But that being said, now that I have had the chance to read the words of a woman who became a birthmother through this method, it has really rattled my misconceptions and discontempt thoughts I had for women like her.  To know that open adoption still has a chance to work despite there being no legal documents showing relationship is astounding to me.  Unfortunately, I do think that the birthmothers of this type may have similar emotional dillemas that baby-scoop era birthmothers held/hold.  It's one thing to come out and say you are a birthmother to a regular domestic adoption child, and quite another to say you are a birthmother through safe haven laws.  The stigma must be overwhelming, especially when considering how I personally felt about these mothers before I stumbled across a safe have mother blog.

Answer 8

A society finally getting it right in keeping children safe.

If only we could get help for the parents of these children after the fact so it would not happen as often or ever again.

But we know that will never happen as it stands right now.

So these laws are the best option for everyone.

Answer 9

I have a dear friend who placed her daughter under the "safe haven law".  She hid her pregancy from everyone and had her baby at home.  She brought her daughter to the hospital and gave all the information she could.  She went back every day until the day that she found out that her daughter went home.  She was able to write and talk with the amom and there were no visits until the adoption was final because if she (birthmom) had stepped forward there would have been an investigation and she didn't want that.  

She has since seen her daughter and the mom update her often.

Personally, I need to see a few more years and come to a conclusion.

Answer 10

I think that safe haven laws are evil.

Answer 11

I truly have mixed feelings about the laws.  In one sense I think they provide an outlet for a mother who feels she has no other choice, and on the other hand, I wonder if bio fathers are left out of this equation with safe haven laws and how are their rights protected?  I also worry about the rights of the adoptee as they become an adult and have no records to research.

However, as a wife of a police officer, I have heard horror stories of calls my husband had received that have involved a parent trying to "rid themselves" of a child.  The most recent being a baby in a toilet.  While the statistics that others refer to may not show it, these occurrences still do happen.  Would a safe haven law protect these children?  I don't know for sure, but I guess I want to believe that they might.  

So, even as I write this I sway from supporting them to not supporting them, but I think the "concept" behind them is good.  I just don't know how to insure EVERYONE involved is protected.

Answer 12

You mean the laws that allow people to drop off infants, especially newborns, with no questions asked?

It's tragic that a mother ever finds herself in that position, but it is far, far better that they have the opportunity to give away their baby safely, rather than risk leaving it out in the cold, or worse, tossing it in a dumpster.

We just had a baby abandoned at our fire station a few days ago.  I'm not sure about the laws in our area, but I'm grateful that the child is safe and doing well.

Answer 13

It's where I was dropped ^.^ shear luck that I got adopted after only 10 days to an awesome family.

Answer 14

While I think the intention behind them was good, I don't think enough forethought was given when they were enacted.

The fact that anyone can drop off a baby...no questions asked, is a little frightening for me.  I mean, how does anyone know that the person dropping off the baby is even the mother of the child?  Or the father, or any relative of the child for that matter?

ANYONE could be dropping this baby off...an angry grandmother who doesn't want to see her daughter "ruining" her life with a child...a jealous girlfriend of the baby's father could get her hands on the infant and drop it off anonymously...heck the child could even have gotten kidnapped and the kidnapper, feeling scared and having second thoughts, could just drop it off and walk away scot free.

And all the while, who's checking on the welfare of the mother?  Does she know her baby is being given away, never to be seen again?  

And on that note, if it isn't the mother dropping of the child, what about her...is she ok?  Has she gotten medical treatment?  Does she need it?  Someone better be looking after her, too for crying out loud!

What about the rights of the CHILD?  These babies DESERVE to know who gave birth to them, who and where they came from, what their hertiage and ancestry and medical background is.  Who is looking out for the rights of the CHILD here?  Yes, we're looking out for the child's safety (supposedly) but what about the RIGHTS?

We need to do a WHOLE lot better with this.  MASSIVE reforms and improvements need to be made to these laws, we NEED information from people who drop off these infants.  For EVERYONE involved.

Answer 15

The laws don't do what they were intended to do. Infact they are just another way for the industry to get a "free" baby, with no strings attached.

The laws "were" put in place to help mothers who are going to abuse their children, or find themselves in a situation where they can't provide for their child to "abandon" them in a safe place.

Research and studies since the safe haven laws have been in place, show that the "abuse" is still continuing, that parents with mental illnesses and dysfunctional lifestyles aren't smart enough to think of entrusting their children into the hands of someone safe. These AREN'T the parents who are surrendering their children to safety.

Instead the industry has just assured that these "safely surrendered" children, now have no heritage, no WAY to contact their families, no ancestry, no name, no nothing. It has  severed 99% chances of them finding out who they came from and where they came from.

Parents have been dropping off children old enough to speak, that know who and where they come from and say "mom was trying to teach us a lesson" i read an article the other day that said the children said their mother "told us to call her when we grew up"

They're not doing what they were intentionally made to do.

I don't support them.

Answer 16

I am not even going to look at all the answers.  The Texoma community that I live in experienced this in Bowie, Texas.  The young girl dumped her baby in a trash can.  These laws don't help anyone.  They deny the child's heritage.  I have to seriously wonder what would cause a woman to do this.  What circumstances led up to this?  This young girl lived with her aunt.  How did the aunt not know that she was pregnant?  What about her parents?  How did they treat her?  Did they educate her on s*x at all?  What about the teachers at her school?  Come on no one noticed that she was gaining weight or wearing extremely baggy clothes?  Where was her support?