Discarded Babies Bill Up to Ryan
Lawmakers' views mixed, but some say it can't hurt
By Alice Hohl, Staff writer
Originally published in the Daily Southtown, May 27, 2001
While a bill that would allow new mothers to abandon unharmed babies without fear of prosecution awaits the governor's signature, the body of a Robbins newborn at the county morgue awaits burial.
Two newborns were thrown away in the south suburbs in February, and both cases remain unsolved.
One baby's body was never found, and the other has not been buried. State lawmakers from both houses and divergent political persuasions passed a law that might have prevented the deaths. The final version of the Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act was approved last week and has moved to the governor for consideration.
"It's specifically to address things like those two babies," said Rep. Rene Kosel (R-New Lenox), a sponsor of the bill. "This will at least give a way for these children to be safe, and that's what it's all about."
Twenty states have provisions that allow women to drop off unwanted babies at police departments or other approved places without punishment.
Eight more states have approved similar measures and are waiting for the laws to take effect.
Some experts believe the law will not have much of an effect on the small number of discarded infants, and they say the underlying reasons why a woman or teen would abandon her baby should be addressed instead. Other opponents said the rights of fathers are being ignored.
But many of the law's supporters in Illinois have said the measure can't hurt, and if it saves one baby's life it will be worthwhile.
The federal government does not keep statistics on infant abandonment, and some experts say the disproportionate media attention they receive leads to inaccurate perceptions that abandonment is rampant.
Burned Robbins baby
In Robbins, a crew of county residents sentenced to community service were cleaning in a public housing complex Feb. 13 when they discovered the body of a baby burned so badly police could not tell the child's race or gender.
An autopsy the next day revealed the child was a boy. Pathologists ruled in April the boy died of asphyxiation and called his death a homicide.
As Robbins detectives tried to solve the case, they found a middle-class Palos Hills teen who hid her pregnancy from her family and confessed to police she threw the baby away after giving birth in a bathtub.
The girl told police the baby was stillborn, and she and her boyfriend put the tiny body in a backpack and dropped it in a trash bin in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, not Robbins.
DNA tests later confirmed the Palos Hills teen was not the mother of the baby boy found in Robbins.
Searches of a downstate landfill where the Bridgeport trash bin's contents would have been dumped turned up nothing.
Police were left with a suspect and no victim in the Palos Hills case, and a victim and no suspect in the Robbins case.
Palos Hills Police Chief Paul Madigan said his detectives are still investigating the case, pursuing "other leads."
"We're not going back to the landfill," Madigan said. "The decision was made that it wouldn't do any good to go back there."
Robbins police eliminated their local suspects in the case, but continue to search for the baby's mother.
Detective Sgt. Dion Kimble said police now think someone from outside of Robbins is responsible for the baby's death.
The boy's body is still in the county morgue.
Local funeral home W.W. Holt volunteered its services several months ago, wanting to provide the infant a proper burial.
A cemetery agreed to donate burial space.
A spokeswoman at the Cook County medical examiner's office said police must first exhaust every means possible to find a family member before the boy can be buried.
Hidden pregnancies
Whether the circumstances in both cases could have been prevented by the proposed legislation is unclear, but a national organization dedicated to helping desperate mothers said Chicago is filled with teens and women who have hidden their pregnancies and don't know where to turn.
"We have received approximately 26 crisis calls from Chicago alone and have rescued 11 babies," said Lori Magnusen, who works a telephone hot line for Project Cuddle, based in California.
Project Cuddle unites desperate expectant mothers with medical services and adoptive parents.
The hot line, 1-88 TO CUDDLE, has fielded thousands of calls and rescued more than 300 babies.
Magnusen said the first caller in 1996 said, "I saw you on TV, and I know the Dumpster is bad for the baby. You better figure out what to do with this baby, or I'm going to put it in the park."
Supporters of the Illinois law said they hope the legislation will allow more babies to be rescued.
"It gives a window of opportunity for those people who are so scared and don't know what to do," Kosel said.
In the law
The Illinois legislation, if signed into law, would take effect Jan. 1, 2002.
It allows women to turn in babies at hospitals or fire stations anonymously within 72 hours of giving birth.
DNA tests will be administered to prove that the person giving up the baby is actually the mother before the child can be adopted, according to the act.
The law provides for limited circumstances under which the baby's parent could return to claim the child.
The act also orders the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to advertise the new law so pregnant women know their options. The act, if signed, is set to expire in 2007 so legislators can examine its effectiveness before renewing it.
