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 ‘