Infant Law Relies on Exposure
By Eric Dyer, Raleigh Bureau News & Record
Originally published in the News & Record, July 8, 2001
Within less than a year, authorities in the Houston area racked up a grim tally—13 babies found abandoned, three of them dead. The newborns were left on porches, along highways, behind a motel and even stuffed in a knapsack.
Hoping to stop these incidents, the Texas legislature in 1999 enacted the nation's first law shielding parents from criminal charges if they simply handed over unwanted infants to emergency officials.
Yet mothers kept discarding their babies, and the innovative law went unused for a year because, child advocates say, it lacked a statewide advertising campaign.
The same challenge could face North Carolina, where similar legislation to decriminalize infant abandonment has cleared both chambers of the General Assembly with final passage likely.
As in Texas and other states, the North Carolina measure does not include any money to let the public know the new option exists. Bill sponsors had sought $150,000 a year for the state Department of Health and Human Services to advertise the law. The appeal for cash was dropped in light of an economic slump that has burdened the state's finances.
"It'll just be slower on the uptake, slower for people to catch on," said state Sen. Bob Carpenter, R-Macon, a sponsor of the Infant Homicide Prevention Act. "We might be delayed a year or so."
In a version of the bill that the Senate passed last week, DHHS officials still would develop recommendations for promoting the law, in case they get the money in later years.
Under the pending measure, parents would have seven days from birth to give up their child to a local law-enforcement officer, a health-care provider, a social services worker, or a certified emergency medical service worker. If the infant is unharmed, the mother and father would escape prosecution.
Parents may be asked to divulge their names and medical backgrounds to assist people who adopt the child. Such disclosure is not required, though.
The person who receives the baby would have to notify social service officials but would be free from liability except in cases of intentional wrongdoing or neglect."This is an important first step—getting the law on the books," said Sen. Bill Martin, D-Guilford, another Senate sponsor. "But we're not going to get the full impact yet. Maybe we can get the money next year." With remarkable speed, laws to stop the unsafe abandonment of young children have spread throughout the nation since Texas led the charge. More than 25 states have them, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
News accounts of abandoned babies being found dead often have propelled legislators to act. In North Carolina, it was the case of a 22-year-old woman from Macon County who smothered her newborn girl and tossed the child into a landfill.
Critics charge that these laws could encourage parents to abandon their infants and to engage in sexual behavior without fear of having to care for a baby. Others question whether most women will feel comfortable going to a police station or hospital, dropping off their child and running away.
Proponents contend that society must set up a safe way for young, frightened parents—typically people who have hidden their pregnancy from family and friends—to get rid of their children without endangering the baby.
Despite good intentions, abandonment laws have fallen flat in many states because no one knows they exist, said Jodi Brooks, a television reporter who launched an informal program in Mobile, Ala., that has been the model for other states.
After covering a string of abandonment cases, Brooks sought a solution to the problem. In 1998, she worked with hospitals, welfare officers and prosecutors to establish "A Secret Safe Place for Newborns," an initiative that has been credited with fueling the national movement.
Brooks said "A Secret Safe Place" has saved nine babies because it was advertised. Her station ran public service announcements. Signs were put on buses. Companies printed brochures.
"Publicity is key," said Brooks, who now works in Cleveland. "A law is no good if no one knows it is there.
"People think the fight is done when you pass the law. It's not. It has only begun." Some states have appropriated money for a media blitz.
New Jersey put aside $500,000 a year to publicize its abandonment law with a campaign of newspaper, cable and radio ads, billboards and a toll-free hotline. So far, five babies have been handed over safely, said Joe Delmar with the N.J. Department of Human Services.
Delmar said a "concentrated media campaign" has been a "critical component to making the law work. And from what we're hearing, we believe people know about the law."
Without the benefit of taxpayer support, other states still are finding ways to get the word out.
The Mississippi Attorney General's Office, working strictly with donated goods, helped organize a publicity campaign to advertise an abandonment law that took effect July 1.
An outdoor advertising company gave billboard space. A printer turned out 300,000 fliers that will be distributed to libraries, malls, schools, gas station restrooms and other high-visibility places.
Actor Sela Ward, a Mississippi native, shot two broadcast promos that urge troubled mothers to take their unwanted babies to a local hospital "and simply walk away. No questions asked."
"We made do with what we had," said Elizabeth Hocker, a special assistant attorney general. "We heard what happened in other states and realized, 'Oh, this is much more serious than we thought.'"
In Texas, the elected land commissioner came to the rescue when he learned about that state's law and realized it was being ignored. He shelled out thousands of dollars from his own pocket to pay for public service announcements, information kiosks at malls and bus-stop ads.
Since then five infants have been turned over to authorities under the no-fault abandonment law, according to the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.
But some question whether advertising makes any difference. They say media reports about an infant being abandoned are more effective because they usually end with a note about the new law and how parents could have used it and escaped criminal charges.
"That gets the word out more than billboards," said Judy Hay, spokeswoman for Children's Protective Services of Harris County, which includes Houston.
Should the abandonment bill become law in North Carolina, child advocates say they would rely on the media, private grants and generous donations to make sure people know about the alternative to killing their unwanted newborns.
"It's less than ideal, but I think it'll work," said Tom Bennett, executive director of the N.C. Child Fatality Task Force. "It'll get us started."
