Last U.S. holdout, D.C. ponders ‘safe haven’ law
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
March 18, 2009
The District is now the only jurisdiction in the country that does not allow a mother to abandon her newborn at a so-called “safe haven” location, though the D.C. Council is considering legislation to create such a law.
The safe haven bill would permit a mother to anonymously “surrender” her unharmed baby — age 7 days or younger — at a hospital, police station, fire station or emergency medical facility without the threat of pursuit or prosecution.
“Hospitals are preferable to Dumpsters, and that has been for too many young people the alternative when safe haven laws do not exist,” said at-large Councilman David Catania, who introduced the legislation with Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells.
Catania offered a recent example: An 18-year-old gave birth Jan. 30 at United Medical Center in Southeast and was quickly discharged, he said. Four hours later she returned, with a toddler in tow, and left the newborn in the hospital’s care with diapers and formula. She was arrested days later after an aggressive pursuit by police and prosecutors.
“This is not an acceptable strategy when an individual is not able to assume responsibility for a child,” Catania said. D.C. was slow to adopt a safe haven statute because, Wells said, “we have not had children abandoned like they have in other states.” But a law is nevertheless necessary, he said, “in the rare instance a child is potentially at risk of being abandoned.”
The first safe haven law was adopted in Texas in 1999 in the wake of a rash of newborn abandonments. The Lorton-based National Safe Haven Alliance says laws nationwide have saved more than 2,000 infants.
It is unclear how many newborns are abandoned in the District. Alan Etter, spokesman for D.C. fire and rescue, couldn’t think of an abandoned baby “in my immediate memory.”
A spokeswoman for Children’s National Medical Center said the hospital sees one or two cases a year.
And there are at least three documented cases in the past five years of D.C. moms who crossed city lines to safely surrender their newborns, said Tracey Johnson, executive director of the alliance.
“We’re very fortunate that Virginia and Maryland has these laws or else it’s quite likely that D.C. would have had three Dumpster babies,” Johnson said.
Despite area safe haven laws, tragedies still occur. A 4-hour-old baby girl, discarded by her mother in a black trash bag, was discovered alive in a Takoma Park field in October. The baby died shortly thereafter.
