Safe Haven Laws
In response to highly publicized media reports of infants discarded in public places and left to die, since 1999 most states have passed legislation that offers a safe, anonymous, and lawful means to relinquish a newborn. Commonly referred to as “safe haven”, “safe surrender”, “baby drop-off”, “baby Moses”, or “legal abandonment” laws, these laws allow a parent to surrender a newborn anonymously under certain circumstances without the threat of prosecution (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, 2004). The intent of these statutes is to encourage mothers, who might otherwise discard their children, to go to an emergency room or other safe place to drop off their infants (Decriminalization of the Abandonment of Newborns, 2000).
Variations by state include limits on the infant’s age at time of relinquishment (72 hours to 1 year) and the people and places authorized to accept the infants (e.g., Emergency Medical Services, hospitals, fire stations, and police stations). Most state policies adopt a “no questions asked” approach, but some states require that a person accepting the infant ask for a medical history. As of June 2005, these laws exist in 46 states (AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV, WY) (The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2005).
The success of these laws remains to be determined. According to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures [NCSL] (2003), approximately 33 infants had been legally handed over as of September 2001. The Secret Safe Place for Newborns program in Mobile, Alabama has been hailed as an example of successful enactment of safe haven legislation. Since 1999, nine infants have been dropped off in Mobile County (National Crime Prevention Council, 2004).
On the other hand, illegal abandonment remains an ongoing issue; in fact, California alone reported 21 cases of illegal abandonment as of September 2002 (NCSL, 2003). These figures represent estimates, as states often do not formally track the number of abandoned infants and media counts may be imprecise. Effectiveness evaluations of safe haven laws are limited and further investigation is needed to fully understand the impact of such legislation on infant abandonment.
Lack of public knowledge about these laws may be a barrier to their utilization (Bolling, 2003). Furthermore, inadequate information dissemination regarding the requirements of the laws (e.g., appropriate locations for abandonment, time limits) may result in mothers leaving their infants in undesignated locations, outside of compliance with the state law (Bolling, 2003). To date, 15 states mandate public information campaigns to increase public awareness of safe haven legislation (Pollock & Hittle, 2003). Several common elements of such campaigns include toll-free hotlines, pamphlets and written material, and public service messages. Implementation of these efforts, however, is limited as only three states provide funding for these services (Pollock & Hittle, 2003).
In addition, some issues have been raised regarding the implementation of these laws. For example, allowing a mother to leave an infant anonymously may not protect a father’s parental rights (Bolling, 2003). In addition, many of the safe haven laws do not require the person relinquishing the infant to provide a medical history, which could affect the adoption of these children and their long-term health (American Adoption Congress, 2001; Dailard, 2000; Pollock & Hittle, 2003). Furthermore, concern has been raised over potential conflicts of safe haven laws with existing termination of parental rights (TPR) proceedings as designated by the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and the Adoption and Safe Families Act (Pollock & Hittle, 2003).