Officials from the Department of Public Health and Social Services on Friday spoke in opposition to a bill that would require them to implement licensing rules for local adoption agencies
Senator responds to trafficking, safeguard concerns in bills
Joe Taitano II
Sen. Mary Camacho Torres wrote to Department of Youth Affairs Director Melanie Brennan, who has been assisting Child Protective Services since January, after concerns that two bills heard at a public hearing April 20 lacked proper procedural safeguards or could open the door to potential human trafficking.
The senator introduced:
Bill 108, which would allow for licensed adoption agencies to be inserted into the adoption selection committee for screening adoption applications; and
Bill 109, which would insert licensed adoption agencies into the chain of custody for children relinquished under the Newborn Safe Haven Act.
In an effort to protect infants from unsafe abandonment, lawmakers will be hearing a bill next Tuesday to expand the Newborn Infant Safe Haven Act by adding a lifeline for mothers and streamlining the adoption process for infants.
Bill No. 109-36 would allow for mothers who are unwilling or unable to care for their newborn child to relinquish them to emergency 911 personnel. It would also allow for independent adoption agencies authorized by Child Protective Services to take physical custody of the newborns until permanent homes can be arranged.
The original legislation was authored in 2018 by Sen. Mary Camacho Torres, following the highly publicized abandonment of a baby on a doorstep in the village of Dededo. Public Law 34-120 allows for a mother to relinquish a child less than 30 days old to personnel at a ‘safe haven’ such as a hospital, fire station, birthing center, or community health center, and be safe from arrest, provided that the child is unharmed. Safe haven or ‘