Newborn baby girl found buried alive in Los Angeles

[Queenie60]

I can't believe what our world is coming to. Last week a crazy person shot up an Abortion clinic in Colorado, last night a baby girl found abandoned and buried alive in Los Angeles. In California a mother has 72 hours after birth to legally surrender a newborn to a local Fire Station or hospital, no questions asked. Thankfully, the baby was rescued in time and is doing well in the hospital. Crazy people.

 

[monarch64]

In Indiana a parent has 30 (!) days from delivering a baby to bring them to a safe place. Clinic murders/bombings and discarded babies have been happening for years, though. This is not something new that is just starting to happen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Grossberg_and_Brian_Peterson

(Amy runs a greeting card company now and he's living a normal life in Florida)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence

(7 murders in the 1990s alone)

So, what the world is coming to is that we haven't changed much in the past 20-25 years.

 

[VRBeauty]

Take heart - it's not all bad news out there: http://www.npr.org/2015/11/28/457626375/newborn-baby-abandoned-in-churchs-manger-already-being-loved.

 

[Calliecake]

I believe Illinois has a law similar to Indiana where you may drop off the baby at a hospital, police station or firehouse. I have never understood why a mother would not just take the baby to hospital and ask that they put the baby up for adoption. There are so many people wanting to adopt an infant.

 

[monarch64]

I believe Illinois has a law similar to Indiana where you may drop off the baby at a hospital, police station or firehouse. I have never understood why a mother would not just take the baby to hospital and ask that they put the baby up for adoption. There are so many people wanting to adopt an infant.

That's what the safe haven act is for, Callie. Unless the parent returns within 60 days, parental rights are relinquished and the adoption process begins. It's the same thing, just anonymous so the mother can keep the pregnancy and baby secret.

http://www.saveabandonedbabies.org/resources/illinois-safe-haven-law/

 

[VRBeauty]

As Queenie noted, California - where this baby was abandoned - also has a safe surrender law. It seems very unlikely to me that unless the mother is a newcomer to this country - which is possible - that the mother would not have known of this law. So to me that leaves three possibilities: the mother is a monster, or she's suffering from some sort of post-partum depression, or the baby's father/mother's boyfriend/some other family member is responsible for the attempted murder.

The police believe the baby was born in a hospital, in which case the mother will likely be found.

 

[monarch64]

VRBeauty, I had my first child at 35 and had never heard of the safe haven law until I was in the hospital and they had some paperwork about it there. I remember my husband and I joking about it with friends a few weeks after the birth--like, hey did you know we have 30 days to give her back? That seems callous to write about in this thread, but that's how uninformed we were, and we are not uneducated folks! 72 hours in CA is a very short period of time, especially when compared with other states who are offering amnesty for up to a month. And is this safe haven thing really advertised?

I hope this crime is solved and appropriate punishment happens to the appropriate party involved.

 

[Niel]

Admittedly I don't even know how long my states safe haven law is, but I have known about it for many years, probably first learned of it in my teen years

 

[Niel]

As Queenie noted, California - where this baby was abandoned - also has a safe surrender law. It seems very unlikely to me that unless the mother is a newcomer to this country - which is possible - that the mother would not have known of this law. So to me that leaves three possibilities: the mother is a monster, or she's suffering from some sort of post-partum depression, or the baby's father/mother's boyfriend/some other family member is responsible for the attempted murder.

The police believe the baby was born in a hospital, in which case the mother will likely be found.

She also could be quite young

 

[VRBeauty]

VRBeauty, I had my first child at 35 and had never heard of the safe haven law until I was in the hospital and they had some paperwork about it there. I remember my husband and I joking about it with friends a few weeks after the birth--like, hey did you know we have 30 days to give her back? That seems callous to write about in this thread, but that's how uninformed we were, and we are not uneducated folks! 72 hours in CA is a very short period of time, especially when compared with other states who are offering amnesty for up to a month. And is this safe haven thing really advertised?

I hope this crime is solved and appropriate punishment happens to the appropriate party involved.

I'm asuming the mother is probably young - and that teenagers are likely to know about this sort of law (at least in general) and mention it to each other simply because teens are more likely to be in a position to need it. Just as, unfortunately, in my day teens might have shared their theories about ways to force a baby to abort. But as you pointed out, it is possible that the mother was unaware that she could give up her baby without legal consequences.

Safe Surrender sites are required to post a safe surrender logo. It's not at all self-explanatory; it does seem to assume that the mother is already aware of this option.

 

[kenny]

FWIW, which is next to zero, I did not know newborns could be given up anonymously.

What a wonderful ideal.
No abortion.
New family gets a much-in-demand newborn.
Mom vanishes without a trace, and without a 7.5-pound 300-ton problem (if that is what she wants).

Best of all, baby goes to a home that very much wants her/him.

What a wonderful idea!

 

[tyty333]

I just looked it up. I think I saw that every state has a safe haven option. What changes between states is the amount of time
after birth you can hand the baby over and the locations available. Almost every state had hospital as a loction. Some states had lots of
places like any medical facility, a responsible adult, fire departments, welfare agency etc. The more places the better IMO.

 

[packrat]

Iowa's is 14 days. I thought the fire dept was a safe haven, but it wasn't mentioned, just health care facilities. I remember a story, tho I don't recall the location..Omaha maybe? Where a woman took her children to a hospital or fire dept and wanted to surrender them under the safe haven law. Was several kids I believe..like 3-5 of them, and I think they were older..like one was a teenager or something. Quite a while ago, and I remember a LOT of hoopla over it.

 

[Laila619]

So sad. Millions of couples would love to adopt her. Can't believe someone could coldly discard their own sweet, helpless baby as though it were a piece of trash.

 

[House Cat]

There was a time when law makers failed to put an age limit on the safe haven act. Parents were surrendering their older children. The stories were so heartbreaking.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

There was a time when law makers failed to put an age limit on the safe haven act. Parents were surrendering their older children. The stories were so heartbreaking.

Yet, having the children stay with parents who are willing to give them away doesn't seem healthy either.

 

[MollyMalone]

There was a time when law makers failed to put an age limit on the safe haven act. Parents were surrendering their older children. The stories were so heartbreaking.

Yet, having the children stay with parents who are willing to give them away doesn't seem healthy either.

Nebraska was the one state where the legislature's original Safe Haven act failed to set an age cap. The parents/guardians who brought their older kids to Nebraska hospital havens, before the Nebraska laws were amended some months later in 2008 to cap the age at 30 days, don't seem to have been indifferent parents/parent figures, but rather ones who were overwhelmed by either sudden circumstances -- e,g., a recent widower, whose wife had died right after giving birth to their 10th child -- or the unique challenges of their mentally ill/emotionally disturbed child & the parent/guardian either didn't know of whatever outside resources were available or had discovered those were sorely lacking or inadequate.
In 2008, there were just 6 child psychiatrists in the entire state of Nebraska. Nebraska was appropriating a smaller percentage of its budget than most states to child welfare. Also as of 2008, group insurance plans in the USA were not yet required to eliminate restrictions on mental health treatment that were not imposed on a plan's medical-surgical benefits.

So even a middle class parent like Lavennia Coover, who was a kindergarten teacher, could find themselves at wits' end & desperate to obtain services not otherwise available for their child:
http://www.gq.com/story/nebraska-child-abandon-legal

None of Nebraska's 30 surrendered children was soon returned to the parent who had brought them to safe havens; as wards of the state, they were initially placed with relatives, in other foster care homes, or in a residential treatment program.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

There was a time when law makers failed to put an age limit on the safe haven act. Parents were surrendering their older children. The stories were so heartbreaking.

Yet, having the children stay with parents who are willing to give them away doesn't seem healthy either.

I agree.