'Safe havens' provide alternatives to abandonment

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As far back as the biblical story of Moses being placed in a basket by his Hebrew mother, left to "roll through the rushes" down the Nile to avoid certain death, we've heard of desperate women and girls abandoning their babies for myriad reasons. But you've got to worry about a newborn, with her umbilical cord still attached, coming into the world only to be left bruised, scratched and tick-infested under brush much less noble than a burning bush.

Imagine. Instead of bursting forth wrapped in pink booties and pastel bunting on her Fourth of July birthday, "Baby Liberty" was found wrapped in a shirt and left to die near a gritty construction site where nearby Laytonsville residents said foxes and other wild animals freely roam.

Some special delivery. Some firecracker. Some freedom. Let's hope that Baby Liberty is destined for a loving couple who want to care for a rare rose. Four persons have called Montgomery County authorities offering to adopt her.

Whatever happens to the precious little package from this point on, we ought to insist that the abandoned baby, now a ward of the state, is not placed in the social services recycle bin. If her young mother is located, Montgomery authorities must take great care and supervision before reuniting Liberty with her family. At least Baby Liberty was found alive, if not well. Baby Vernon James Doe was discovered dead in a Mount Vernon creek June 8. It had been raining relentlessly for days. Neither his mother nor his father came forth to claim him before his ashes were buried at St. James Episcopal Church with dozens of sorrowful strangers looking on.

If only we cared as much about newborns and babies and toddlers and children in this country as we apparently do about unborn fetuses, maybe there would be fewer Baby Does discarded. We are lead to believe by the latest studies and statistics that out-of-wedlock births, particularly teen births, are declining. Then we hear these horror stories of young girls giving birth in bathrooms and backrooms and then dumping or drowning their so-called discarded babies. For if we are to save one newborn, this effort is worth a try. And, if we can save one young, unwed mother, all the better.

Enter the "safe haven" acts taking hold across the country. Maryland lawmakers enacted a safe-haven law in October. Virginia lawmakers followed suit in March.

According to Kyle Ramierez-Fry, senior staff assistant of the National Conference of State Legislators, 44 states have adopted infant safe-haven laws since 1999. In Hawaii, a measure was passed but vetoed. Alaska and Massachusetts are among those still considering such a bill.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported 105 infants abandoned in public places in 1998; 33 were found dead. More recent statistics indicate that at least 161 were abandoned in 1999 and 2000; 103 of them dead.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler was instrumental in winning passage of the legislation, which he made a personal crusade after a young woman left her baby to die in a trash bin during a 1999 snowstorm.