Appendix C. 'Safe Haven

• Author: Jeffrey Kasky; Robert Andrew Kasky
• Pages: 99-101

99

APPENDIX

C

“Safe Haven”

Some years ago there was a movement afoot throughout the United States to address the issue of women

delivering babies and either murdering the babies or dumping them in a garbage can or dumpster. Al-

though the problem wasn’t widespread, each event was very notable due simply to its horrific nature and

consequently received extraordinary local and national press coverage.

Some state legislatures responded with laws which were named (or nicknamed, depending on the

jurisdiction) “safe haven” laws, indicating that a hospital or police station, for example, was a “safe

haven” at which a person could drop an “unwanted” baby with no questions asked. The laws vary from

state to state, of course, but the overall theory is the same.

Whether the law was successful, meaning whether it was able to achieve the stated goal of saving

babies from being murdered or abandoned, depends on who you ask. In some states and jurisdictions,

the application of the law can be flawed and sometimes skewed toward increasing the numbers to make

it look more successful than it actually is. This can be done, for example, by encouraging women who

might otherwise have chosen to voluntarily consent to adoption to leave the baby in the hospital instead,

just so the placement can be considered a “safe haven” placement versus a voluntary adoption placement.

In Florida, as an example, there is no official organization responsible for implementing or tracking

the statistics of Florida’s safe haven laws. Various private organizations claim knowledge of or respon-

sibility for keeping this information, but no official data-keeping entity has been designated by the law.

Some of these organizations claim to “educate” law enforcement and other entities as to the existence of

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