NEWS & LETTERS, December 2008 - January 2009
Nebraska safe haven law
Something unthinkable is happening in Nebraska. Older children are being abandoned by their parents under Nebraska's now notorious safe-haven law. Until recently, this law allowed parents to abandon children up to the age of 18.
Safe-haven laws allow mothers who might be driven to abandon their babies in unsafe places, to legally leave them at hospitals. Unlike other states, Nebraska did not set an age limit for abandoned children. Over 35 children, mostly between the ages of 11 and 17, were abandoned before Nebraska changed the law to apply to newborns only. It is hard for many people to understand how any child could be abandoned by their parents.
Several parents drove to Nebraska from as far away as Washington to leave their children in a safe place. Some of the stories behind these abandonments are shocking. The mother of a five-year-old attempted suicide because her child was so out of control that he tried to bash in a baby's head with a hammer and set fire to a shower curtain and her insurance company refused to pay for mental health treatments. A man, whose wife died, abandoned nine of his ten children because he could not care for them anymore.
One can only imagine the pain and desperation these parents must be going through. The trauma to the children is hard to comprehend. Nebraska now faces the challenge of integrating these children into a system overcrowded with children no one wants. Both parents and children face mental health problems that could have been avoided if we had a healthcare system that addressed their needs.
Women are encouraged and expected to give birth, then often denied the necessities needed to care for their children. I'm surprised more children weren't left in Nebraska, perhaps because of the stigma attached to parents who abandon their children. Tragically, there is a large increase in the number of children who are murdered by their parents each year. For that reason, I don't feel that the safe-haven law in Nebraska was a bad thing. It certainly exposed some of the many things wrong with our society.
A better answer is access for everyone to decent, affordable housing, childcare, food, clothing, healthcare, leisure time and a job that pays a living wage. These things would go a long way to solving some of the problems of parents and children
--Suzanne Rose
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