A Nebraska Republican introduced a bill to expand the state’s Safe Haven Law to fight infant abandonment in the state.
Nebraska’s first Safe Haven Law was passed in 2008. The law originally allowed parents to surrender children up to 18 years old to hospitals, but it was quickly changed to within 30 days of birth after 36 children were surrendered — none of which were newborns.
“I don’t think there was a lot of thought that was put into the idea,” Sen. Rick Holdcroft (R) of Bellevue told WOWT. “It was just that we wanted to save kids.”
Unlike many Safe Haven laws across the country, Nebraska’s law does not allow infants to be surrendered to fire and police stations. Holdcroft’s updated Newborn Safe Haven Act, LB876, would expand the locations where parents can surrender a baby to include fire and police stations that are staffed 24 hours a day.
The bill would also allow parents to call 911 and permit emergency services to take the baby, as well as extend the age a newborn can be surrendered legally from 30 days to 90 days. It additionally would eliminate the requirement for face-to-face surrender.
“We’ve had a number of close calls where babies have essentially been abandoned,” Holdcroft said. “If it weren’t for a Good Samaritan coming along, that baby’s life might’ve been lost.”
Data obtained by the local news outlet from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that nearly 200 babies less than one year old have been considered abandoned under Nebraska’s Safe Haven Law since it passed in 2008. However, only 14 babies have fallen under the requirements of the law.
“Fire chiefs, police chiefs, sheriffs, they’re all willing to take on this additional duty,” Holdcroft said.
“The Omaha Fire Department is really on board with that because what we really care about is that everybody is safe,” said Battalion Chief Coby Werner with the Omaha Fire Department.
The proposed bill includes the allowance of Safe Haven Baby Boxes. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals and can be accessed from the inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their babies inside the box up to a certain point after birth, depending on state law. The outside door locks, and they have time to get away before an alarm goes off, alerting first responders inside. The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the baby is usually placed into state custody and often swiftly adopted.
The proposed bill would not require communities to install the boxes and does not allot state funding for them. Baby boxes in other states have often been installed after donations from community organizations, individuals, or crowd-funding.
The bill has received bipartisan support so far.
“Everyone I’ve talked to is very supportive of the bill, so I think it’ll have a good chance,” Holdcroft said.