Don’t Throw Your Baby Away – Baby Drop Off Laws
The other day, some kids heard a noise and found a baby in the trash. I found out that there were over 50 babies abandoned in unsafe locations in Illinois alone in the last nine years. Twenty seven of those infants died. Despite intense efforts nationwide, women who want to hide the fact that they had a child do not seem to know that they have an alternative to leaving an infant in the trash. Indiana, which probably has the most lenient law to encourage people to safely surrender babies, has still had 20 illegal abandonments and seven deaths. (As long as it doesn’t seem to have been abused, you can literally walk into the hospital or the fire house, hand your baby over to an authorized person and leave with no questions asked.)
If you can't keep it, safely leave your baby at the hospital under the safe haven law. Photo: SXC
If you don’t want your baby, take it to the hospital in a warm, clean blanket, go inside and ask the person at the information desk who you can leave the baby with under the Safe Haven Law. If you don’t have the blanket, fine. Carry it in your arms or wrap it in a clean t-shirt. But under no circumstances should you stick your unwanted baby in an old box or a trash bag and then stick it in with a trash pile up the street. Not even if you are sure that having someone find out about your unplanned pregnancy will ruin your life. Every US state, as well as Washington, DC, has a safe haven law that allows people to take their infants to the hospital (and sometimes the fire station or police station, too) and drop them off. Every state. That means your state, too. Most of the laws even waive abandonment charges as long as the babies haven’t been abused and many states don’t even make you give your name.
Can’t drive to the drop off point? Call your local police non-emergency line, your hospital, your fire station, Planned Parenthood. Someone will help you find a way to safely and legally drop off your baby.
I know you’re feeling desperate and scared, but please walk away from the dumpster and keep walking until you reach the hospital, where you can legally give up your baby. If you throw your baby away, you won’t just destroy the life you brought into the world. You’ll destroy your life, too.
Related posts:
Here’s how we publicize the Baby Safe Haven laws around New England, where there hasn’t been a deadly abandonment in three years. Our spokesperson has made appearances on dozens of radio and TV stations — from high schools to the big 50,000 watt radio stations in Boston.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjSnnRswxCw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oF3Ve59VFY