The States' Response to Parental Divestment

Abstract

Safe haven laws arose as a compassionate response to the perceived increase in the number of mothers who killed their infants or abandoned them in unsafe places, such a dumpsters, toilets, outdoors, etc. (Appell, 2002b; Sanger, 2006). The policy problem of infant abandonment arrived on the local policy agenda in Mobile, Alabama in 1997 and early 1998. During that time, 20 infants were reported abandoned. In one case, a mother and grandmother drowned an hour-old infant in a toilet, and each received a 25-year prison sentence (Sanger, 2006). In response to this case, the program called “A Secret Safe Place for Newborns” was established. Prosecutors promised anonymity and immunity if the infant was relinquished unharmed. In 1999 Texas also experienced a surge in abandoned babies – 13 were abandoned in a 10-month period, 3 of whom died. Texas' Baby Moses Law was the nation's first safe haven law passed in 1999. Within two years, dozens of states passed safe haven laws with little debate, analysis, or opposition (Baran, 2003; Sanger, 2006). In order to reduce the occurrences of neonaticide and infanticide in which infants were left to die, all 50 states in the United States have passed safe haven laws.

Citation

Liesen, L.T. (2011), "The States' Response to Parental Divestment", Peterson, S.A. and Somit, A. (Ed.) Biology and Politics (Research in Biopolitics, Vol. 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2042-9940(2011)0000009003