Knabe guest OP/ED: ABANDONING COMMON SENSE: NEBRASKA'S GOOD INTENTIONS TRUMP GOOD POLICY -

 

NEWS FROM DON KNABE

Supervisor, Fourth District

County of Los Angeles

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ABANDONING COMMON SENSE: NEBRASKA’S GOOD INTENTIONS TRUMP GOOD POLICY

By Supervisor Don Knabe
September 3, 2008
639 Words

Has your tormenting toddler or unruly teenager finally sent you to the breaking point? Then the State of Nebraska may have the answer you are looking for: a new law that allows a parent to abandon their children, all the way up to age 19, no questions asked.

This law, recently passed by the Nebraska Legislature, makes the state the last in the nation to pass what is known as a “Safe Haven” law, allowing mothers of unwanted newborns to anonymously surrender their babies. We have already had such a law here in Los Angeles County since 2001, in the form of the highly-successful Safe Surrender Program.

As a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, I have been a passionate advocate of the Safe Surrender Program and other Safe Haven laws across the country. There is no doubt in my mind that having such laws saves lives, and there has been no limit to the good intentions expressed by lawmakers throughout the country around this issue. 

But when we are talking about the safety of children, sometimes there is a dramatic difference between good intentions and a law that makes for terrible public policy. That is why I was astounded to learn of Nebraska’s new law, which grants parents the right to abandon children up to the age of 19.  Nebraska’s law is carrying good intentions to the point of absurdity. 

Safe Haven laws should be applied strictly as an emergency measure to protect unwanted newborns.  Why?  Because statistical data and research on this indicates that the greatest danger to an unwanted newborn is in the first hours after birth. These critical hours are when the most deaths of unwanted newborns occur and when they are most in need of medical attention or protection.

In California, our Safe Haven Law was passed by the Legislature in 1998, in response to a horrific trend of hours-old newborns found dead in trash bins, abandoned by distressed parents. The current law allows for babies 72 hours of age or younger to be relinquished anonymously, and it is working as intended.  251 children are alive today across California as a result of this law; 68 of them were safely surrendered in Los Angeles County.

Nearly all of the 68 babies relinquished anonymously in Los Angeles County over the past 10 years were turned over within hours of birth.  In fact, the Los Angeles County Coroner reported a three-year trend during which time there were no homicides of infants between 72 hours and seven days of age.  However, they also reported that during this same period, there were 12 infants younger than 72 hours who were killed by a parent. The evidence is clear: the greatest danger to unwanted children is in the first hours of life, not later.

 

The existing Safe Haven laws across the country are designed to be life-saving measures. If future forms of the law do not adhere to this fundamental principle, then the purpose changes dramatically to a convenient way for parents to override the adoption and relinquishment systems and rid themselves of children they do not want, with no strings attached. I am disappointed to say that Nebraska’s new law has this effect.

By granting parents such a wide timeframe to anonymously turn over a child - if one considers a 19-year-old to be a child – Nebraska has unfortunately shifted the life-saving intentions of Safe Haven laws into a misguided way to convenience parents fed-up with children of any age. Safe Haven laws are not designed for the easy offloading of older children and young adults. These laws exist to help desperate new parents and newborn babies who are born into dangerous circumstances.  It is their plight that was the basis of these programs, and they are the ones we should focus on protecting. 

• Supervisor Don Knabe

County of Los Angeles, Fourth District

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