"Educate all on Safe Haven Law" is the headline to an editorial today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Some quotes from the beginning of the piece:
When a distraught mother left a baby boy at the fire department’s administration offices last week, she demonstrated that Indiana’s Safe Haven law protects babies’ lives. Although it is only the second case in Allen County since the law took effect four years ago, those two lives more than justify the law’s existence.Here is a link to the Safe Haven law, found at IC 31-34-2.5. Posted by Marcia Oddi at September 14, 2004 08:44 AMSaddened by stories of mothers killing or dangerously abandoning unwanted babies, state legislators wanted to give such desperate mothers an alternative. Under the law, mothers can anonymously drop babies off at a hospital, fire station or police station without fear of prosecution as long as the baby has not been abused and is no older than 45 days. In last week’s case, it worked.
The case also highlights some potential problems that local officials need to address to make sure that the law continues to protect Indiana’s infants. Police, in their concern for the baby’s health, may have unintentionally overlooked the law’s provision to protect a parent’s confidentiality by conducting a search for the mother.
Police had only the best intentions in conducting this search, but knowing police might search for a mother after dropping off a child under the law’s guidelines could have a chilling effect on women in trouble and might discourage them from using the law. Frightened parents need to know that the police will not only protect the baby’s well being but the parent’s privacy as well.