« Courts - Still more on: Final opinion days from the SCOTUS | Main | Environment - More on: Plan Commission rejects request to move Wednesday's meeting to a larger location »
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Ind. Law - "Key to safe-haven law is spreading the word"
Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal reports today on Indiana's Safe Haven Law. Some quotes:
Since Indiana enacted the law, the National Safe Haven Alliance has recorded six lives saved in the state and 20 illegal abandonments, of which at least seven were fatal.The law is found at IC 31-34-2.5.All states now have safe-haven laws, which the alliance said have saved the lives of at least 1,000 infants nationwide.
Indiana's law allows a parent to give up an infant who is less than 45 days old confidentially at a hospital emergency room, police station or firehouse. The law protects the parents from arrest or prosecution for abandonment.
It also makes medical treatment and social services available to the birth mother and puts the child in the custody of the Indiana Division of Family & Social Services Administration, which places the infant in a foster or pre-adoptive home.
"Safe haven is for the young mother, the 20-something mother, the 30-something mother who loves the child, chooses life, but may not want to go through all the ramifications of selecting the adoptive parents," Hammond said. "They just want to have that child placed with a loving couple."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 26, 2008 10:42 AM
Posted to Indiana Law