Mother failed to take advantage of SD, Iowa safe haven laws

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http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/arti...al/235ef59068d
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Mother failed to take advantage of SD, Iowa safe haven laws
By Bret Hayworth Journal staff writer

The Sioux City Journal

It's supposed to work this way.


A mother who finds herself in circumstances where she feels it best to give up
her newborn brings the baby to a hospital. The infant is left, the mother walks
out, few questions asked.

That option is available in both Iowa and South Dakota hospitals, yet a young
woman living in Union County, S.D., reportedly gave birth to a male baby on
Feb. 2, and placed the boy -- whether alive or dead hasn't been determined --
on Feb. 3 into a trash receptacle. Since March 12 searchers have scoured a
rural Jackson, Neb., landfill to find the body.

Over the last half decade states have increasingly added "safe haven" laws
under the rationale that keeping the baby alive trumps hectoring parents about
reasons for giving up the baby. A parent who takes advantage of safe haven laws
is abandoning the baby and terminating parental rights.

"It certainly was heartbreaking, that the mother may not have been aware of the
safe haven law," St. Luke's Regional Medical Center social case work manager
Judi Wiskus said of the local case.

Forty-five states now have safe haven options, generally specifying from three
to 30 days as the time allowed to hand over the baby. About half the states,
including Iowa and South Dakota, will not prosecute parents who relinquish
unharmed infants, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports.
Nebraska is one of the five states without a safe haven law.

Iowa became a safe haven state in July 2001. St. Luke's explained the new
measure in a December 2001 newsletter and Wiskus said employees there are well
acquainted with how to respond to a drop-off situation. In the few weeks since
the Union County incident, St. Luke's employees have had a refresher course.

There have been "no drop-offs at this hospital," Wiskus said and she is not
aware of any at other area safe havens. Since the Iowa law was enacted, four
babies have been given up by parents, reported Iowa Department of Human
Services spokesman Roger Munns. He said two were given up in Des Moines, with
the other two in towns smaller than Des Moines. To indicate those locations
more precisely, Munns said, could harm future safe haven drop-offs from
parents.

In South Dakota, no babies have been reported from safe havens to Child
Protection Services of the Department of Social Services. However, CPS
administrator Virgena Weiseler said, word was received in February of an
unwanted child who was delivered to a private adoption agency.

Iowa law states that infants may be relinquished at hospitals, clinics,
residential care facilities and intermediate care facilities. But, said Wiskus,
"I would think, knowing Sioux City, that if a baby were dropped anywhere, it
would be brought to a hospital."

If a mother brought her newborn to St. Luke's Regional Medical Center,
explained Wiskus, the first step would be an examination of the baby by an
emergency room physician. Then hospital workers would "keep the baby safe"
until officials of the Iowa Department of Human Services arrive, which she said
would be only a matter of hours.

Wiskus explained hospital employees don't get into the reasons for the
abandonment. They will ask personal history of the baby, but if the parent
declines, hospital workers won't push the point. Nor will the parent be asked
to identify themselves, all in line with the goal to make it a nonjudgmental
situation. "We will not harass them in any way," she said.

Custody is given to the Bureau of Child Protective Services of the Iowa
Department of Human Services and a court hearing is held to terminate both
parents' rights and to place the child for adoption. Munns said none of the
parents in the four cases have changed their minds and fought to keep the
babies, all of whom have been "adopted into happy families."

Munns said Iowa's safe haven law is working. After the law was passed in 2001,
the first safe haven drop-off came in March 2003, with the most recent Jan. 14
of this year. Since the law went into effect, the only case Munns can recall of
the questionable disposal of a baby came in Buena Vista County, when body parts
were found by a recycling plant worker in 2002.

"If you are having a troubled pregnancy, if you don't know what to do, at least
cause no harm to the child," Munns said. "And this is a way to do it."



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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown