A safe place for newborns

by Ellen Nester

The New Ulm Diocesan Council of Catholic Women has adopted a resolution on life ethics that calls for us to take action against violence and discrimination in our society. The goal of the Family Concerns Commission for 2000-2001 is to invigorate our commitment to the life ethic resolution. One way in which that can be accomplished is to ensure the safety of all members of our society, specifically the newborn. The Redwood Falls Hospital recently has been designated as a "Safe Place for Newborns". Following is a news release sent by Jim Schulte, hospital administrator, explaining how the service works.

A new option is available for the parent(s) that may consider abandonment of a newborn child.

Under a new Safe Place for Newborns program, a mother, or person who has the mother’s consent, may leave an unharmed newborn at the Redwood Falls Hospital within the first 72 hours following birth, with no questions asked. The Redwood County Department of Human Services will then arrange for foster care of the newborn, and perhaps eventual adoption.

The Minnesota Legislature took action this past session to protect against unwanted newborns being abandoned in trash bins or other areas that result in injury or death.

The hospital, the county department of human services, and the county attorney’s office have collaborated to establish the Safe Place for Newborns program in the area.

Under the recent legislation, a person who leaves an unharmed newborn at the hospital, within the first 72 hours of life, is offered anonymity and immunity from prosecution for abandonment.

At least 28 states have either adopted or are considering "safe abandonment’ legislation. The drive started in Mobile, Alabama after a young, unwed mother drowned her newborn in 1995.

The first hours of a newborn’s life are the most vulnerable, therefore the most critical. Having a time frame associated with the program conveys the importance of immediate action.

Dawn Allen, director of nursing services at the hospital, says, "It is our hope that lives may be saved because the hospital has made it as easy for a young woman to choose a safe place to leave her baby as it is for her to leave the baby in a dangerous place."

Ellen Nester is from Redwood Falls and is the Council of Catholic Women Family Concerns Chairperson.