BabySafeHaven
02-03-2005, 12:50 PM
MICHIGAN
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/020305/loc_baby001.shtml
Warren mother gives up newborn
Incident shows life-saving effect state law can have
February 3, 2005
By Norb Franz
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
A 3-day-old baby taken to a Warren fire station is alive and well, perhaps in
part due to a state law that allows mothers to give up a newborn without facing
criminal charges, police said.
A Warren woman brought the baby girl to the fire hall on Nine Mile Road, east
of Van Dyke, about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday and told firefighters she wanted to give
the child up for adoption, police said.
The infant was transported to St. John Macomb Hospital in Warren and was
reported to be doing fine.
To protect her identity, police did not release the name of the woman, but said
she was in her 20s.
"She was very cooperative with the officers who responded to the scene,"
Detective Sgt. Michael Torey said. He said the infant was born less than an
hour earlier, but police did not know whether anyone assisted the woman in her
delivery. The child was covered with unspecified material to protect it from
the cold as the mother brought the newborn to the fire station, police said.
Police drove the woman to a hospital for a physical exam. She signed a form
voluntarily releasing the child for adoption.
Citing patient confidentiality laws, St. John Hospital spokesman Greg Jakub
said he could not release any information on the child. But he said hospital
employees followed protocol under Michigan's so-called "safe haven" law that
took effect Jan. 1, 2000. Modeled after a program launched in Wayne County in
2000 with the help of police, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies in
metropolitan Detroit, the law decriminalized the abandonment of newborns in an
effort to save lives. Birth mothers who do not wish to keep their babies can
drop them off at a hospital emergency room, police station or fire station
within 72 hours of delivery.
Previously, any woman who abandoned a newborn could face up to 15 years in
prison.
Tuesday's incident was the first of its kind at St. John Macomb Hospital, Jakub
said. Also, Warren police believe it's the first time a mother of a newborn has
turned a child over for adoption under safe-haven procedures anywhere in the
city.
"I think it worked excellent in the fact the baby was not left abandoned in a
situation where it could have died from the elements. It saved the life of a
newborn baby," Torey said.
Police have not spoken to the man who may be the infant's father. Officials
also contacted the Macomb County office of the Family Independence Agency.
State FIA records showed that 12 babies were placed in adoptive homes in 2001
after being surrendered under the law.
Michigan's safe-haven law, like those in other states, was created to deter
mothers -- typically young and unmarried -- from concealing their pregnancies,
giving birth in private and then disposing of their newborn's bodies.
The program launched initially in Wayne County in March 2000 was prompted in
part by the death of a newborn boy who was left outside a Warren church by his
17-year-old mother in the chilly November air in 1999.
In 2003, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a leading adoption
institute, reported that such laws are admirable, but send a signal that
abandonment is OK and encourage mothers to conceal their pregnancies, give
birth unsafely and leave their children anonymously while depriving abandoned
children from ever learning their medical or genealogical histories.
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/020305/loc_baby001.shtml
Warren mother gives up newborn
Incident shows life-saving effect state law can have
February 3, 2005
By Norb Franz
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
A 3-day-old baby taken to a Warren fire station is alive and well, perhaps in
part due to a state law that allows mothers to give up a newborn without facing
criminal charges, police said.
A Warren woman brought the baby girl to the fire hall on Nine Mile Road, east
of Van Dyke, about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday and told firefighters she wanted to give
the child up for adoption, police said.
The infant was transported to St. John Macomb Hospital in Warren and was
reported to be doing fine.
To protect her identity, police did not release the name of the woman, but said
she was in her 20s.
"She was very cooperative with the officers who responded to the scene,"
Detective Sgt. Michael Torey said. He said the infant was born less than an
hour earlier, but police did not know whether anyone assisted the woman in her
delivery. The child was covered with unspecified material to protect it from
the cold as the mother brought the newborn to the fire station, police said.
Police drove the woman to a hospital for a physical exam. She signed a form
voluntarily releasing the child for adoption.
Citing patient confidentiality laws, St. John Hospital spokesman Greg Jakub
said he could not release any information on the child. But he said hospital
employees followed protocol under Michigan's so-called "safe haven" law that
took effect Jan. 1, 2000. Modeled after a program launched in Wayne County in
2000 with the help of police, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies in
metropolitan Detroit, the law decriminalized the abandonment of newborns in an
effort to save lives. Birth mothers who do not wish to keep their babies can
drop them off at a hospital emergency room, police station or fire station
within 72 hours of delivery.
Previously, any woman who abandoned a newborn could face up to 15 years in
prison.
Tuesday's incident was the first of its kind at St. John Macomb Hospital, Jakub
said. Also, Warren police believe it's the first time a mother of a newborn has
turned a child over for adoption under safe-haven procedures anywhere in the
city.
"I think it worked excellent in the fact the baby was not left abandoned in a
situation where it could have died from the elements. It saved the life of a
newborn baby," Torey said.
Police have not spoken to the man who may be the infant's father. Officials
also contacted the Macomb County office of the Family Independence Agency.
State FIA records showed that 12 babies were placed in adoptive homes in 2001
after being surrendered under the law.
Michigan's safe-haven law, like those in other states, was created to deter
mothers -- typically young and unmarried -- from concealing their pregnancies,
giving birth in private and then disposing of their newborn's bodies.
The program launched initially in Wayne County in March 2000 was prompted in
part by the death of a newborn boy who was left outside a Warren church by his
17-year-old mother in the chilly November air in 1999.
In 2003, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a leading adoption
institute, reported that such laws are admirable, but send a signal that
abandonment is OK and encourage mothers to conceal their pregnancies, give
birth unsafely and leave their children anonymously while depriving abandoned
children from ever learning their medical or genealogical histories.
