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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Not a good move
I think that she shouldn’t have just left the baby with a stranger. I dont care if it was in public. You don’t know what this stranger is capable of. She does need to be held responsible. She placed her child in harms way. Now again I don’t know if she is in her right mind mentally or not, but this mother needs to turn herself in. Do the right thing. Now if she knows she did the right thing then she would turn herself in but apparently she knows she did something wrong.
jessica anderson | 1 year, 12 months ago
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Prosecute a 16-year-old for doing what she thought was the best thing at an extraordinarily stressful time? Come on, 16-year-olds do not have the maturity to make such decisions. And, how does a child trust that adults at a hospital or fire station will not take her into custody or phone her parents? Granted, her parents should be informed, but we’re talking about a child’s mentality, and everything is disproportionately exaggerated. The baby is safe. At least she chose wisely when choosing a responsible adult—maybe the first wise decision she’s made in a long time.
Lisa Staley | 1 year, 12 months ago
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My Prerogative
I changed my mind. My first thought was “how can you prosecute an immature 16-year-old child who has obviously made a plethora of mistakes up until this point?” However, how is this child going to learn responsibility otherwise? Apparently, she has been without good instruction. She likely made her decision out of fear and stress, and luckily it turned out all right. However, we now have another U.S. baby in foster care. A run in with the law, as heartless as it seems, might make her think twice next time. Some of life’s lessons are hard ones.
Lisa Staley | 1 year, 12 months ago
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This is not the right thing
The right thing would be to get rid of these so-called “safe haven” laws. Once you bend from the position that adoption is the only safe and legal way to discharge parenting duties, you’re on a slippery slope. The baby Moses law advocates go bananas trying to make sure everyone knows about them, but all the laws do is open the door for people to think in general that it’s ok to leave your baby in some semi-decent way.
Desperate people do do desperate things. Safe-haven laws don’t stop baby dumping as states have shown over and over again… and that is only for the dumped babies who get found. What this young mother needed was guidance and an understanding of the law. If she didn’t get it from her family, that’s sad. But she did not dump her child in the trash or leave him in the woods, so she was not crazed. She was perhaps well-intentioned, but not educated. The laws need to state that adoption is the only way to divest yourself of a child, and then the schools need to teach it.
Sue R | 1 year, 12 months ago
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Double standard
This is a perfect example of a double standard. This poor girl, probably in a moment of complete distraught, did what she felt was the right thing to do for her newborn child. she did it according to the law of the state, which I find to be repulsive, but we won’t discuss that right now, and is now being persecuted for it. This young lady, apparently felt she had no other choice but to leave her baby with someone she felt would take care of the infant. Why does the state now want to throw her in jail for this?! What difference does it make “where” she relinquished her son? She obviously felt that the person she gave the baby to would do the right thing. Did she do something wrong by picking a person who fit the bill of being just and moral? I don’t believe so.
S. Wade | 1 year, 12 months ago
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The Greater Failure Began Much Earlier
Where are people to educate and inform about abortion? This “problem” should not even exist. The greatest failure is thinking teens don’t have sex, and then failing to tell them abortion is an option. Dropping off a baby in a firehouse or an adoption agency are failures of adults to fully inform about choices. Without full knowledge these girls feel they “have to” carry the pregnancy to term. They do not.
Ann | 1 year, 12 months ago
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Out of your mind?
The solution to the problem is not in the murder of the unborn. Your assumption is that the child is worthless and that is a critical error. All new life is created for eternity from the moment of conception – to take that life is to take the role of God – which after reading your post is clearly not one that you can assume.
Abortion is murder – it can be nothing else.
Paul | 1 year, 12 months ago
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Abortion is an option
Cells are not babies. Using the language of murder is incorrect. We have a legal right to abortion and it is an option a young teen needs to know to make a fully informed decision. This is not a religious question. Your religion does not, and should not, dictate policy.
Ann | 1 year, 11 months ago
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So Sad
The girl did the right thing by leaving her with someone she felt would be safe. At least she gave this baby life instead of aborting it which might have caused her even more distress.
Jane Doe | 1 year, 12 months ago
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Did the right thing.
Not knowing the circumstances the young girl faced, she did the right thing – delivered the baby and offered it to someone instead of killing the baby through fear. I stand on the side of the woman – what she did was courageous – abortion is the cowardly act.
Paul | 1 year, 12 months ago
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