This past spring, Nebraska and Alaska both passed safe haven laws. Currently all 50 states have a form of Safe Haven law. These laws are put in place and intended to allow parents to leave children (generally infants) someplace safe and allow their children to have the opportunity for a good life. One of the touted benefits of these laws is that they are a deterrent to abortions and provide a more anonymous alternative than abortion.

From what I have seen and found, the laws of most states have a limit of 1 year or less regarding the age of the child that can be abandoned under these laws and in some cases the age limit is only a few days old. However, what has made Nebraska’s law unique and so talked about is that they it doesn’t impose a specific age limit.

The entirety of Nebraska Statue 29-121 formerly known as Legislative Bill 157 reads as follows:

No person shall be prosecuted for any crime based solely upon the act of leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty at a hospital licensed by the State of Nebraska. The hospital shall promptly contact appropriate authorities to take custody of the child.

It is short and sweet and doesn’t go into much detail. Under Nebraska law, a child is defined as anyone under the age of 18 and this has opened up a whole can of worms in that some parents have been “dropping off” teenaged children at the hospitals and not facing any repercussions because of this law.

A special session is going to be held in the Nebraska legislature beginning on November 14 that will be addressing this issue and limiting the age of the children that can be left under this law.

Ok, so that is some background on the issue. Now, aside from ensuring that my readers are informed and have an understanding of current events, I am writing this post to share my thoughts, opinions, and views with the rest of the world.

It is expected that during this special session, a variety of alternatives will be introduced and discussed as possible amendments to this law. With options ranging anywhere from 72 hours to 6 months to 1 year, it’s hard to say what the “optimal” limit would be to meet the needs and intent of the bill without providing excessive opportunity for people to abuse the bill. Personally, if a limit has to be imposed, I would say somewhere between 1 week and 3 months.

My reasoning for this is perhaps overly optimistic of the human condition, and not for the benefit of those people who just decide that parenting is not for them, but rather in the best interest of the children. What I am referring to are those individuals who may get pregnant unintentionally and decide for whatever reasons that they are going to keep and raise the child.

The first three days after the child is born are likely to be “abnormal” as there will be a lot of excess attention from family and friends and people coming to see and meet the baby. It is also likely that in these first few days, the new parent will not be on their own. However, after these first few days when everyone goes back to their normal lives, the reality of parenting will begin to emerge and the new parent may realize that they will not be able to provide a decent life for their child. In this case, it would be in the best interest of the child to have an opportunity for a better life. With a limit of 72 hours (and heck, a week might even be too short) this option is no longer available by the time this new reality sets in.

Now, moving away from the stated and intended purpose and reason for these laws, let’s take a look at the reason for the special session of the Nebraska Legislature. There have been several teenagers that have been abandoned under Nebraska’s law and this has caused quite a stir nationally. In fact, there was a story a couple of weeks ago about a woman driving from Georgia to Nebraska to drop off her 15-year-old son.

Whether this is right or wrong is not the focus of my thoughts here. The question that I think needs attention (and that will be discussed by the Nebraska Legislature starting on the 14th) is whether or not it is OK for this law to extend to teens.

Here again, perhaps I am being too optimistic. Not to say anything about right or wrong, but I don’t necessarily think that it is a bad thing that the law applies to teens. My reasoning for this is just from thinking about the type of situation that would make someone want to “abandon” their child like that.

If someone is going to raise a child for 12 or 14 or 16 years and then just one day up and decide that to leave their child at a safe haven like that, there is probably good reason for it and that child will probably be better off in the future as a result. Now, this is just my thinking about this issue from one particular angle and I could easily come up with arguments supporting multiple other sides of this discussion, but while there have been some unintended consequences of the passage of this law in Nebraska I’m not sure whether I think it is something that needs to be “fixed” or changed. What do you think?