Gone Baby Gone
At 7:30 on a Monday morning, a teenage girl holding a newborn baby approached a bus stop in Sacramento. The bus stop is only a few miles from the California state capitol building, where a law called the “SSB” was enacted—the safely surrendered baby law. The SSB allows a desperate mother to give up an unwanted baby within three days of birth, no questions asked, no prosecution for child abandonment, and hopefully no infant left in a trash dumpster, the kind of tragic scenario the law was designed to discourage.
So when the teenager—strawberry blond and about 16—appeared at the bus stop and asked a kind stranger to hold her baby while she fixed a bottle, perhaps she thought she was doing the right thing as she slipped away forever…safely surrendering her infant son. The stranger called the police. The police took the 7 pound boy to a hospital, where he was determined to be in good health, one to two days old.
But even though the police initially said the teenager tried to “do the right thing”, the law says she can be arrested and prosecuted for felony child endangerment because the only legally recognized SSB sites in Sacramento are hospital emergency rooms and fire stations. Bus stops don’t qualify. So the police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the teenage mother, who could go to jail for essentially choosing a bus stop over a dumpster.
If doing the right thing in this case wasn’t the legal thing, is the greater failure with the mother or the law?
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Baby
Women can’t win. Fortunately abortion is still legal, though there are many who would like to see that return to back alleys and wire hangers.
Young teenager chooses to have her baby live, but is unable to care for it and probably had hidden the pregnancy from whatever family she had-rich and would punish or banish her to avoid shame? A family of drunks and druggies, child molesters or what?
So she is unable to care for this baby she has brought into the world and does the best she can-I am sure she tried to a certain the kindness of the stranger he gave the baby to. She could have been wrong, but the odds of the baby being killed by the stranger she chose were no doubt a lot less than if the baby ended up as garbage.!
The laws are still broken. We need to fix them and show some compassion for this poor CHILD, the 16 year old mother.
Laurie | 1 year ago
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What known understands
I don’t care who you are, it’s not fair to place judgment on this young girl..
I was a child of foster care until I was 7 and grew up in a home that took in foster kids. From the things that I have personally seen, I think this girl was scared, alone and didn’t know what to do.She probably felt uncomfortable scared, living this bad and with someone else and how she felt was responsible for her actions.
As a 20 year old woman I could never give up any child. Think of the grief this girl has to go through everyday. I think that is punishment enough…so please don’t place judgment on what you cannot understand…I ask this to everyone who reads this comment. please put yourself in this girl’s situation first……….
SARA | 1 year ago
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This is so true.
This is so true. You should never judge someone until you have walked in their shoes. At least she didn’t leave the baby in the woods or in dumpster. It had to be a hard decision for her to make and I know I could never make that decision so remember how hard it was for her and she put the baby before herself.
Lora Gardner | 1 year ago
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gone baby gone
From experience she did the wrong thing. My mom did the same thing except she left my and my brother with our grandparents instead of strangers. She said she was going to work one day when my dad was at work and she went to another state instead. We never saw her until 15 years later. If she didn’t want kids she shouldn’t have had them.
sarah elizabeth | 11 months, 4 weeks ago
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Gone baby gone
I think it should depend if this (baby) understood the law . She, being a baby herself, could have thought she was doing the right thing. After all, a 7lb 2 day old healthy baby wasn’t left in a dumpster or killed and thrown in the woods. The newborn is safe, that’s most important. If she goes to jail for this it might make other moms think they would come up with something, even if they left a baby at a hospital or fire hall. They may not trust the system and cause them to just throw the baby anywhere .
barbara duke | 11 months ago
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Free-lance Writer
I think we should ask the young lady why did she give her baby to this person and not another person. We can only guess or assume what was going through her mind. If we could find out her reason or reasons for giving her baby to this individual, then we could adopt or create a solution or solutions to deal with similar situations. The law or laws are political entities and they do not apply to each situation equally. Some people are afraid of the law or laws because they do not afford some people equality under the law. Thank you!
CARL JAMES BANKS JR. | 11 months ago
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Gone Baby Gone
At least she didn’t have an abortion, she tried to be sure the baby would live and find a home.
Serous | 10 months, 3 weeks ago
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In her shoes
We don’t even know if she knew about the law. Maybe she should be questioned about her knowledge of the law. Put yourself in her shoes. I personally think that she did do the right thing in giving the baby a better future.
connor olson | 10 months, 1 week ago
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whats wrong with america
We Americans have lost our minds, sue sue, prosecute prosecute. Why do we try to find legal technicalities in every single problem we have in America. Iinstead of trying to put this young lady in jail, someone should be trying to help. We are way to judgmental towards our youth and we should walk a mile in their shoes. Who knows how she got pregnant in the first place; rape, molestation could be a possibility, but instead you all are going to make her out to be a monster. Obviously she needs some kind of mental help and think of how awful she probably feels giving her child to a stranger.We all should be ashamed of ourselves. I thought we were fellow Americans.
sarah tavano | 10 months ago
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I think that while she had the correct intentions in mind, it wasn’t the best thing for her to do. She handed the child off to a complete stranger not knowing what the stranger would do with the child. She could have easily gone to the hospital instead to give it up, considering it wasn’t that far away and it would have been much much safer for the baby. Luckily, she handed the child to someone that wasn’t going to abuse it or even kill it, but that’s not always the case.You can’t just look at people and know “oh, they won’t hurt the baby, they look nice” because sometimes your judgment is very wrong.
Eden Hughes | 10 months ago
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