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Baby
Star's parents were found but were not prosecuted for child
abandonment. The baby was adopted out.
In 1992,
a baby girl was found dead at the bottom of a dumpster in
Springfield.
The
American Adoption Congress' analysis of safe-haven bills
can
be found at www.american-adoption
congress.org/ abandoned_
baby.htm
For
Bastard Nation's analysis, go to:
www.bastards.
org
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The headlines are horrifying:
"Dead baby found in dumpster."
"Mother abandons child in public restroom."
Two years ago, for reasons Texas officials still don't
understand, baby dumping became as trendy as capri pants
in the Lone Star state; 13 newborns were left to die in
1998. Texas lawmakers responded with "Safe Haven" legislation,
which designates hospitals, police stations and other public
facilities as neutral zones where anyone can drop off a
baby--no questions asked.
Across the country, at least 28 states followed suit, debating
similar bills; more than a dozen have passed legislation.
In Oregon, state Sen. Peter Courtney read newspaper accounts
of a rash of abandonments in Texas. The Salem Democrat thought
that state's bill was a damn fine idea, and he wrote one
himself for Oregon's 2001 Legislature. "I just took a notion,
as they say, and thought about seeing if there was a way--if
someone was in this desperate situation--to get them to
do it in a safe way," he says.
On the surface, it would seem that lawmakers such as Courtney
had found a simple solution to an appalling problem. A closer
look shows that even such well-intentioned laws can have
long-reaching, unintended consequences.
Like similar measures elsewhere, Courtney's current proposal
would provide an affirmative defense against the criminal
penalty for child abandonment as long as the infant was
left in a designated safe-haven spot. The mother wouldn't
be required to reveal her name, the name of the father,
or any information about herself or the child. She could
leave it for adoption and walk away.
The thinking behind this idea is that if a woman knows
she won't be penalized or questioned, she is more likely
to leave her baby in a safe place, rather than dump it in
a dangerous one.
Courtney says in drafting his bill, he talked to experts
from the state Adult and Family Services agency, police
officers and district attorneys, and he encountered no opposition.
But Courtney overlooked one constituency: adoptees.
Dolores Teller, a birth mother, is the president of the
Oregon Adoptee Rights Association. She is against the legislation,
as are the American Adoption Congress, Bastard Nation and
other adoption-reform groups. Teller, who is also the Oregon
rep for the AAC, says she sent Courtney a letter voicing
her opposition to his bill, but he did not respond.
"On the surface it sounds like the best thing to do," she
says. "When we hear about the babies in the dumpsters, certainly,
we'd rather have them at the hospital door. But you have
to think a little deeper."
According to Teller and other critics, there are several
problems with safe-haven legislation. The first is that
the anonymity allowed under the law creates a loophole in
Ballot Measure 58, which made original birth certificates
available to adult adoptees. By passing M58, voters decided
that every person born in Oregon (except those conceived
via anonymous sperm or egg donorship) is entitled under
law to know the name of his or her original parents. Abandoned
babies, however, would have no original birth certificate,
no medical history and no means to track their biological
roots.
Adam Pertman, author of Adoption Nation, says the
safe-haven laws legitimize child abandonment. "Think about
the 17-year-old woman who doesn't want to face this pregnancy.
Her boyfriend, maybe, will whisper in her ear, 'Just drop
it off at Mercy General, they won't ask questions.' She'll
think, 'Great, I have another option.'"
It's an option, he says, that could set her and the baby
up for future pain.
"Unfortunately," he says, "no one ever asks the birth mothers.
Have they interviewed women who gave their children away
to find out if there is a way to help them?"
In reality, he points out, baby abandonment is a rare occurrence.
Most women who leave their children have drug and alcohol
problems and do so in the hospital shortly after giving
birth. Those children are not officially deemed "abandoned"
because they are left in the care of medical staff.
Research on baby abandonments is nearly nonexistent. The
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services used national
newspaper accounts to come up with 105 incidents nationwide
in 1998. In Oregon, there has been only one case in the
past two years: the highly publicized "Baby Star," a newborn
infant found next to the Starbucks cart at Legacy Emanuel
hospital.
In fact, no one knows if the laws are effective. If Texas
is any example, they aren't. Since that state's law passed
in 1999, 13 babies have been abandoned--none at safe-haven
spots.
Courtney maintains that an anonymous baby is better than
a dead one. Still, he says he has no intention of undermining
Measure 58 or doing more harm than good. Once the legislative
session is under way, he will hold hearings and consider
removing the anonymity portion of the bill.
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