Tweet
FLORIDA
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.d.../NEWS/40125047
8/1039
» Top Stories
Published Sunday, January 25, 2004
A SAFE HAVEN
Abandoned Baby Law Saves Some, But Others Still Die
By Rebecca Mahoney
The Ledger
[email protected]
The young mother walked into the Lake County hospital clutching an infant son
she didn't want to keep. She had given birth at home, five weeks before her due
date, and kept the boy for two days while she weighed her options.
She could have discarded the infant -- hidden him among trash in a bin and
walked away. She could have left him on the doorstep of a church and slipped
away.
Instead, under Florida's safe-baby law, she walked into South Lake Hospital in
Clermont on April 11, 2002, handed him to a surprised nurse, and said goodbye
to her son -- legally and anonymously, with no questions asked and no fear of
arrest.
A few days later, little Brody was placed with his new parents, Kristine and
Steve York of Ocoee.
Once so fragile he fit in the palm of a baseball glove, Brody is now a healthy,
active 21-month-old.
Although his dark hair and eyes reflect his biological mother's coloring,
Kristine and Steve are every inch his mommy and daddy. (See related story about
Brody's new life on page A1.)
Brody is among at least 18 unwanted infants to be safely abandoned since the
state's Safe Baby Act was adopted three years ago. Six have been surrendered in
the last six months.
The law allows mothers to leave their newborns anonymously at fire houses,
hospitals and ambulance stations within three days of birth without fear of
prosecution. Forty-five other states have similar laws.
"We do know we are saving lives, and we are making a difference," said Nick
Silverio, founder of A Safe Haven for Newborns, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to promoting Florida's law. "Are we going to save every life? I don't
know. But we're certainly trying."
The law is designed to offer desperate parents a legal and uncomplicated
escape, possibly saving the newborn from being abandoned unsafely. Mothers can
protect their identity and avoid prosecution while getting peace of mind
knowing their children will be placed with families.
So-called "safe-haven" laws are not without their critics, many of whom say the
laws do more harm than good. They call the laws unrealistic and say they
promote a culture of irresponsibility and anonymity.
Supporters, however, say safe-haven laws offer a safety net for mothers who
might otherwise slip through the cracks.
"This law allows a child to have a life and doesn't ruin (the mother's)," said
Rick Sopka, a coordinator at Healthy Start Coalition of Hardee, Highlands and
Polk counties who helps promote the state's safe-haven law.
Distraught mothers around the country are slowly starting to take advantage of
the laws. In December, for example, a baby girl was left at a hospital in
DeLand in Volusia County by a young mother who said she wanted to follow the
law.
But babies are still being abandoned illegally.
In the same three-year period that 16 Florida babies were legally dropped off,
at least 19 others were unsafely discarded. In May, a high school junior left
her newborn son on a deserted boat in Orlando. In August, a woman abandoned her
infant on a Bal Harbour beach; another left her son on a Fort Lauderdale patio
chair, his umbilical cord still attached.
Similar illegal abandonments happen all over the country, many in states that
have long since adopted safe-haven laws.
In California, for example, 20 babies were left at safe places between January
2001 and July 2002. But 38 others were found in unsafe places, such as trash
bins and public rest rooms. Seventeen of those babies died, according to a
report by the National Conference on State Legislatures.
In Louisiana, not a single parent has ever taken advantage of its 3-year-old
law. Instead, 11 newborns have been found abandoned in public places; seven
died.
Such accounts have drawn scrutiny. Critics say it's unrealistic to expect a
woman who is distraught enough to abandon or harm her infant to walk into a
public place and hand her baby to a nurse or firefighter.
"You're talking about a girl who couldn't figure out what to do about her
pregnancy . . . and now you want her to jump in a taxi cab and go to a hospital
and drop that baby off?" said Michelle Oberman, a DePaul University professor
of law who researches cases of mothers harming infants. "I'm pretty skeptical
that the safe-haven laws will actually reach these girls."
But advocates say they think the laws are working, and say their impact will
only become stronger as public awareness increases.
"Obviously, these bills are not the final answer, but they provide a
compassionate approach to saving the lives of innocent and helpless babies,"
said Silverio. "What's the alternative -- seeing babies crushed in Dumpsters?
That's probably happening more times than we'd like to believe."
SIZE OF PROBLEM UNKNOWN
Nobody knows exactly how many infants are publicly abandoned each year.
Some states have started keeping track of when such babies are found, but the
numbers are estimates, at best. It's impossible to guess how many babies are
abandoned and never found.
The most comprehensive numbers come from an informal search conducted by the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2000, which was based on
newspaper articles on the subject. The search found reports of 105 infants
abandoned in public places in 1998; a third of those infants were found dead.
A more recent study conducted by the University of North Carolina estimates 85
babies are abandoned each year in public places.
Those numbers don't reflect the estimated 31,000 infants left at hospitals each
year, mostly because of parental drug addiction.
The problem of public abandonments seemed particularly pronounced in Texas in
1999. Thirteen babies were discarded within a 10-month period, prompting
lawmakers to pass the country's first safe-haven legislation. That law allowed
parents to give up their babies within 60 days to an emergency medical services
provider, licensed childplacing agency, or licensed residential child-care
provider.
The idea caught on like wildfire, with other states quickly passing similar
laws. The most recent, New Hampshire, passed its law in May. That leaves only
five states -- Hawaii, Alaska, Vermont, Massachusetts and Nebraska -- without
safe-haven laws.
In Florida, the law went into effect in July 2000 after 11 babies were reported
abandoned in six months.
"We have a lot of unwed mothers, young girls making life-threatening
decisions," said Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa, who sponsored the bill along with
then-Sen. Charles Bronson, R-Satellite Beach. "I think they needed to have a
safe haven. They needed to know they could make a decision to save the life of
their child and not be prosecuted."
Florida's law states the infant must be 3 days old or younger and unharmed. In
most cases, the child is given a hospital examination and then placed with a
private adoption agency. Biological parents have 30 days to change their minds.
Foster families can apply for adoption after 90 days.
But some parents-rights groups say such laws are simplistic solutions to a
complex social problem, and they condemn politicians for condoning an approach
the United States criticizes in other countries.
"This is a drive-by adoption," said Marley Greiner, executive chair of the
Houston-based adoption-rights organization ******* Nation. "You're saying, åYou
don't have to have prenatal care, you don't have to have an attended birth. You
can just have this baby in the bathtub, and no one will ever know.' "
Other adoption-rights organizations say the laws virtually guarantee abandoned
infants will never know their medical history or find their biological parents.
"They are saving lives, but it is still not providing any information for the
adoptive parents that they could use in raising that child," said Carolyn
Hoard, legislative director for the American Adoption Congress. "This (law)
gives them almost no opportunity to locate a birth parent."
CRITICISM FROM A WOMAN ABANDONED IN LAKELAND
Melissa Snyder, a Walden, N.Y., woman who was abandoned in Lakeland as an
infant 33 years ago, says she appreciates intent but thinks safe-haven laws
have the potential to cause frustration and heartbreak for children who want to
know their heritage.
"It's an indescribable feeling when you walk down the street and you don't know
if you could be bumping into your mother or your father or your sister," said
Snyder, whose mother left her at Lakeland Regional Medical Center shortly after
giving birth. "There's always so many unanswered questions. It's like a big
empty void."
In March, a leading adoption institute issued a report that said safe-haven
laws are teaching mothers that abandoning their babies is both legally and
socially acceptable.
"By providing a no-hassle route for ending parental responsibly, safe-haven
laws encourage mothers to conceal their pregnancies, give birth unsafely and
leave their children anonymously, undermining established and effective child
welfare and adoption policy," said the report by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption
Institute.
Meanwhile, fathers'-rights groups say the law sidesteps paternal interests.
"It's better for a child to be abandoned in a hospital than abandoned in a
field somewhere, but a greater effort ought to be made to locate the biological
father," said Mike McCormick, director of the American Coalition of Fathers and
Children in Washington, D.C. "The father should be given every opportunity to
claim that child."
Hawaii's governor found such arguments so convincing she vetoed a safe-haven
bill her state legislature had overwhelmingly passed.
"I believe that any good that might be accomplished by this bill is likely to
be outweighed by the harm that it would cause," wrote Gov. Linda Lingle last
June in her response to state lawmakers.
Snyder said she thinks mothers who use safe-haven laws should be required to
provide the child's medical history.
"If you're going to just hand the child over, at least give the child over with
a piece of paper with any medical information," she said. "Down the line, that
child is not going to have any identity whatsoever."
Advocates for safe-haven laws admit they aren't a perfect solution. But they
say the good the laws do outweighs their flaws.
"We've always said, if we could save one baby, it would be worth it," said Dawn
Geras, who directs the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation in Chicago, an
organization dedicated to promoting Illinois' safe-haven laws. "There will
always be some that won't take advantage of the law. But we are trying to save
them all."
REFINEMENTS, EDUCATION NEEDED
In late September, nurse Julie Pybas was walking into the Palatka Health Care
Center when she discovered a baby boy on the doormat. The newborn had been
wrapped in a housecoat or a duster and was half-concealed by the rug outside
the door.
Similar cases of babies being left in hospital parking lots or outside fire
stations have occurred all over the country.
In the last three years in Polk County, at least two babies have been left in
the parking lot of Heart of Florida Hospital in Haines City.
Safe-haven advocates say they don't know if such cases mean mothers don't know
how the law works, or if they're afraid to walk into a place where people might
recognize them.
"The Safe Baby Act ought to be amended . . . to require that the parent either
hand the child to a responsible adult employee, or leave the child at a safe
location and immediately place a phone call to the hospital and tell them where
it is," said Polk Circuit Judge Robert Doyel, who handled one abandonment case
in Haines City in August 2002.
Children abandoned in parking lots outside medical centers or fire stations
aren't considered safe-haven babies, and go into the custody of the Department
of Children and Families.
Children who are abandoned under the letter of the law go into private adoption
agencies.
Silverio says the problem is simply that people don't know enough about the
law.
His organization, A Safe Haven for Newborns, is working to remedy the problem
through an aggressive public awareness campaign. The state has earmarked
between $80,000 and $100,000 each year for promotion since the law went into
effect, but Silverio says that's not enough.
"Everyone needs to know about this law," said the 60-year-old Silverio, who
founded the organization in memory of his wife, Gloria, after she was killed by
a speeding driver in 1999. "Maybe you're not going to abandon your child, but
maybe you can counsel somebody who might. Maybe somebody would ask you
questions about it."
Similar organizations have cropped up all over the country, including SavBaby
in Texas and Safe Arms for Newborns in California.
Geras, of Chicago's Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, said she thinks the laws
would be more widely used if states pooled their resources and worked together
to get the word out.
"I'd like to see some national policy that could maybe help everybody," she
said. "So many of us are continuing to reinvent the wheel."
Despite the concerns, safe-haven supporters include lawmakers and educators,
medical personnel and researchers.
"I think safe-haven laws are an excellent idea," said Lois Pierce, a professor
of social work at the University of North Carolina who has worked with women
who have abandoned infants. "It's a law that's been sorely missed in this
country. It gives people who are not able to care for their children a way to
give up their babies without there being a lot of stigma attached."
For Silverio, conviction that the laws work comes from seeing a healthy baby
boy left safely with Cape Coral firefighters in April, instead of hearing about
his death.
It comes from helping a terrified pregnant teenager come to a decision about
her baby.
And it comes from the gratitude expressed by joyful adoptive parents, like baby
Brody's new parents.
"We're making a difference in people's lives," said Silverio. "We're saving
babies. And that's the most satisfying feeling in the world."
Rebecca Mahoney can be reached at 863-802-7548 or
[email protected].
Last modified: January 25. 2004 2:35AM
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.d.../NEWS/40125047
8/1039
» Top Stories
Published Sunday, January 25, 2004
A SAFE HAVEN
Abandoned Baby Law Saves Some, But Others Still Die
By Rebecca Mahoney
The Ledger
[email protected]
The young mother walked into the Lake County hospital clutching an infant son
she didn't want to keep. She had given birth at home, five weeks before her due
date, and kept the boy for two days while she weighed her options.
She could have discarded the infant -- hidden him among trash in a bin and
walked away. She could have left him on the doorstep of a church and slipped
away.
Instead, under Florida's safe-baby law, she walked into South Lake Hospital in
Clermont on April 11, 2002, handed him to a surprised nurse, and said goodbye
to her son -- legally and anonymously, with no questions asked and no fear of
arrest.
A few days later, little Brody was placed with his new parents, Kristine and
Steve York of Ocoee.
Once so fragile he fit in the palm of a baseball glove, Brody is now a healthy,
active 21-month-old.
Although his dark hair and eyes reflect his biological mother's coloring,
Kristine and Steve are every inch his mommy and daddy. (See related story about
Brody's new life on page A1.)
Brody is among at least 18 unwanted infants to be safely abandoned since the
state's Safe Baby Act was adopted three years ago. Six have been surrendered in
the last six months.
The law allows mothers to leave their newborns anonymously at fire houses,
hospitals and ambulance stations within three days of birth without fear of
prosecution. Forty-five other states have similar laws.
"We do know we are saving lives, and we are making a difference," said Nick
Silverio, founder of A Safe Haven for Newborns, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to promoting Florida's law. "Are we going to save every life? I don't
know. But we're certainly trying."
The law is designed to offer desperate parents a legal and uncomplicated
escape, possibly saving the newborn from being abandoned unsafely. Mothers can
protect their identity and avoid prosecution while getting peace of mind
knowing their children will be placed with families.
So-called "safe-haven" laws are not without their critics, many of whom say the
laws do more harm than good. They call the laws unrealistic and say they
promote a culture of irresponsibility and anonymity.
Supporters, however, say safe-haven laws offer a safety net for mothers who
might otherwise slip through the cracks.
"This law allows a child to have a life and doesn't ruin (the mother's)," said
Rick Sopka, a coordinator at Healthy Start Coalition of Hardee, Highlands and
Polk counties who helps promote the state's safe-haven law.
Distraught mothers around the country are slowly starting to take advantage of
the laws. In December, for example, a baby girl was left at a hospital in
DeLand in Volusia County by a young mother who said she wanted to follow the
law.
But babies are still being abandoned illegally.
In the same three-year period that 16 Florida babies were legally dropped off,
at least 19 others were unsafely discarded. In May, a high school junior left
her newborn son on a deserted boat in Orlando. In August, a woman abandoned her
infant on a Bal Harbour beach; another left her son on a Fort Lauderdale patio
chair, his umbilical cord still attached.
Similar illegal abandonments happen all over the country, many in states that
have long since adopted safe-haven laws.
In California, for example, 20 babies were left at safe places between January
2001 and July 2002. But 38 others were found in unsafe places, such as trash
bins and public rest rooms. Seventeen of those babies died, according to a
report by the National Conference on State Legislatures.
In Louisiana, not a single parent has ever taken advantage of its 3-year-old
law. Instead, 11 newborns have been found abandoned in public places; seven
died.
Such accounts have drawn scrutiny. Critics say it's unrealistic to expect a
woman who is distraught enough to abandon or harm her infant to walk into a
public place and hand her baby to a nurse or firefighter.
"You're talking about a girl who couldn't figure out what to do about her
pregnancy . . . and now you want her to jump in a taxi cab and go to a hospital
and drop that baby off?" said Michelle Oberman, a DePaul University professor
of law who researches cases of mothers harming infants. "I'm pretty skeptical
that the safe-haven laws will actually reach these girls."
But advocates say they think the laws are working, and say their impact will
only become stronger as public awareness increases.
"Obviously, these bills are not the final answer, but they provide a
compassionate approach to saving the lives of innocent and helpless babies,"
said Silverio. "What's the alternative -- seeing babies crushed in Dumpsters?
That's probably happening more times than we'd like to believe."
SIZE OF PROBLEM UNKNOWN
Nobody knows exactly how many infants are publicly abandoned each year.
Some states have started keeping track of when such babies are found, but the
numbers are estimates, at best. It's impossible to guess how many babies are
abandoned and never found.
The most comprehensive numbers come from an informal search conducted by the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2000, which was based on
newspaper articles on the subject. The search found reports of 105 infants
abandoned in public places in 1998; a third of those infants were found dead.
A more recent study conducted by the University of North Carolina estimates 85
babies are abandoned each year in public places.
Those numbers don't reflect the estimated 31,000 infants left at hospitals each
year, mostly because of parental drug addiction.
The problem of public abandonments seemed particularly pronounced in Texas in
1999. Thirteen babies were discarded within a 10-month period, prompting
lawmakers to pass the country's first safe-haven legislation. That law allowed
parents to give up their babies within 60 days to an emergency medical services
provider, licensed childplacing agency, or licensed residential child-care
provider.
The idea caught on like wildfire, with other states quickly passing similar
laws. The most recent, New Hampshire, passed its law in May. That leaves only
five states -- Hawaii, Alaska, Vermont, Massachusetts and Nebraska -- without
safe-haven laws.
In Florida, the law went into effect in July 2000 after 11 babies were reported
abandoned in six months.
"We have a lot of unwed mothers, young girls making life-threatening
decisions," said Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa, who sponsored the bill along with
then-Sen. Charles Bronson, R-Satellite Beach. "I think they needed to have a
safe haven. They needed to know they could make a decision to save the life of
their child and not be prosecuted."
Florida's law states the infant must be 3 days old or younger and unharmed. In
most cases, the child is given a hospital examination and then placed with a
private adoption agency. Biological parents have 30 days to change their minds.
Foster families can apply for adoption after 90 days.
But some parents-rights groups say such laws are simplistic solutions to a
complex social problem, and they condemn politicians for condoning an approach
the United States criticizes in other countries.
"This is a drive-by adoption," said Marley Greiner, executive chair of the
Houston-based adoption-rights organization ******* Nation. "You're saying, åYou
don't have to have prenatal care, you don't have to have an attended birth. You
can just have this baby in the bathtub, and no one will ever know.' "
Other adoption-rights organizations say the laws virtually guarantee abandoned
infants will never know their medical history or find their biological parents.
"They are saving lives, but it is still not providing any information for the
adoptive parents that they could use in raising that child," said Carolyn
Hoard, legislative director for the American Adoption Congress. "This (law)
gives them almost no opportunity to locate a birth parent."
CRITICISM FROM A WOMAN ABANDONED IN LAKELAND
Melissa Snyder, a Walden, N.Y., woman who was abandoned in Lakeland as an
infant 33 years ago, says she appreciates intent but thinks safe-haven laws
have the potential to cause frustration and heartbreak for children who want to
know their heritage.
"It's an indescribable feeling when you walk down the street and you don't know
if you could be bumping into your mother or your father or your sister," said
Snyder, whose mother left her at Lakeland Regional Medical Center shortly after
giving birth. "There's always so many unanswered questions. It's like a big
empty void."
In March, a leading adoption institute issued a report that said safe-haven
laws are teaching mothers that abandoning their babies is both legally and
socially acceptable.
"By providing a no-hassle route for ending parental responsibly, safe-haven
laws encourage mothers to conceal their pregnancies, give birth unsafely and
leave their children anonymously, undermining established and effective child
welfare and adoption policy," said the report by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption
Institute.
Meanwhile, fathers'-rights groups say the law sidesteps paternal interests.
"It's better for a child to be abandoned in a hospital than abandoned in a
field somewhere, but a greater effort ought to be made to locate the biological
father," said Mike McCormick, director of the American Coalition of Fathers and
Children in Washington, D.C. "The father should be given every opportunity to
claim that child."
Hawaii's governor found such arguments so convincing she vetoed a safe-haven
bill her state legislature had overwhelmingly passed.
"I believe that any good that might be accomplished by this bill is likely to
be outweighed by the harm that it would cause," wrote Gov. Linda Lingle last
June in her response to state lawmakers.
Snyder said she thinks mothers who use safe-haven laws should be required to
provide the child's medical history.
"If you're going to just hand the child over, at least give the child over with
a piece of paper with any medical information," she said. "Down the line, that
child is not going to have any identity whatsoever."
Advocates for safe-haven laws admit they aren't a perfect solution. But they
say the good the laws do outweighs their flaws.
"We've always said, if we could save one baby, it would be worth it," said Dawn
Geras, who directs the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation in Chicago, an
organization dedicated to promoting Illinois' safe-haven laws. "There will
always be some that won't take advantage of the law. But we are trying to save
them all."
REFINEMENTS, EDUCATION NEEDED
In late September, nurse Julie Pybas was walking into the Palatka Health Care
Center when she discovered a baby boy on the doormat. The newborn had been
wrapped in a housecoat or a duster and was half-concealed by the rug outside
the door.
Similar cases of babies being left in hospital parking lots or outside fire
stations have occurred all over the country.
In the last three years in Polk County, at least two babies have been left in
the parking lot of Heart of Florida Hospital in Haines City.
Safe-haven advocates say they don't know if such cases mean mothers don't know
how the law works, or if they're afraid to walk into a place where people might
recognize them.
"The Safe Baby Act ought to be amended . . . to require that the parent either
hand the child to a responsible adult employee, or leave the child at a safe
location and immediately place a phone call to the hospital and tell them where
it is," said Polk Circuit Judge Robert Doyel, who handled one abandonment case
in Haines City in August 2002.
Children abandoned in parking lots outside medical centers or fire stations
aren't considered safe-haven babies, and go into the custody of the Department
of Children and Families.
Children who are abandoned under the letter of the law go into private adoption
agencies.
Silverio says the problem is simply that people don't know enough about the
law.
His organization, A Safe Haven for Newborns, is working to remedy the problem
through an aggressive public awareness campaign. The state has earmarked
between $80,000 and $100,000 each year for promotion since the law went into
effect, but Silverio says that's not enough.
"Everyone needs to know about this law," said the 60-year-old Silverio, who
founded the organization in memory of his wife, Gloria, after she was killed by
a speeding driver in 1999. "Maybe you're not going to abandon your child, but
maybe you can counsel somebody who might. Maybe somebody would ask you
questions about it."
Similar organizations have cropped up all over the country, including SavBaby
in Texas and Safe Arms for Newborns in California.
Geras, of Chicago's Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, said she thinks the laws
would be more widely used if states pooled their resources and worked together
to get the word out.
"I'd like to see some national policy that could maybe help everybody," she
said. "So many of us are continuing to reinvent the wheel."
Despite the concerns, safe-haven supporters include lawmakers and educators,
medical personnel and researchers.
"I think safe-haven laws are an excellent idea," said Lois Pierce, a professor
of social work at the University of North Carolina who has worked with women
who have abandoned infants. "It's a law that's been sorely missed in this
country. It gives people who are not able to care for their children a way to
give up their babies without there being a lot of stigma attached."
For Silverio, conviction that the laws work comes from seeing a healthy baby
boy left safely with Cape Coral firefighters in April, instead of hearing about
his death.
It comes from helping a terrified pregnant teenager come to a decision about
her baby.
And it comes from the gratitude expressed by joyful adoptive parents, like baby
Brody's new parents.
"We're making a difference in people's lives," said Silverio. "We're saving
babies. And that's the most satisfying feeling in the world."
Rebecca Mahoney can be reached at 863-802-7548 or
[email protected].
Last modified: January 25. 2004 2:35AM
Comment