A Study of Safe Haven Baby Laws in the United States: One Life Saved or Too Many Unknowns to Evaluate?

Abstract

Safe Haven laws allow parents or guardians to legally relinquish an infant without fear of prosecution at a designated safe site, where the infants are provided with temporary care until placed into the care of Child Service Professionals. This honors thesis project analyzes Safe Haven baby laws in their current form in the United States, finding that Safe Havens laws need to be a complement to other programs, as they alone cannot solve infant abandonment. My findings further recommend the need for policy modifications to Safe Haven laws to ensure data is being tracked to be analyzed and to build greater public awareness of the existence of Safe Havens. Establishing best practices for policy implementation requires data tracking from which to develop a strategy that ensures quality data collection and establishes processes by which to evaluate data regularly. Improving Safe Haven laws depends upon establishing better tracking systems to include accurate numbers of legally and illegally surrendered infants at either a statewide and/or federal level