Senators advance 'safe haven' bill, but changes expected

 10 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star

Nebraska could become the 49th state to adopt a safe haven bill, allowing a parent to drop off a baby at the hospital without fear of arrest, if a negotiated agreement developed Wednesday does not fall apart.

The goal of the new, negotiated safe haven proposal “would be to focus on the welfare of the child,” said Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, the most vocal opponent of the bill and a member of the group working out an agreement.

A parent could drop off a child of any age at a hospital and would not be prosecuted for abandonment, under the negotiated version of the safe haven bill (LB157).

[+]Enlarge

That child would be turned over to the existing juvenile court system and the existing foster care system that deals with neglected or abused children, explained Chambers and others involved in the negotiations.

This simple system would avoid all the pitfalls of the more complicated legislation, senators said. And its appearance ended the debate over those problems on Wednesday.

How do you determine that a child is less than 72 hours old if you have an age restriction in a safe haven law?  One version of Nebraska’s bill allowed parents to drop off a baby up to 30 days old. Another version applied only to infants up to 72 hours old.

How do you protect the rights of fathers when a child is abandoned in a hospital? A father’s rights did not appear to be addressed in any of the safe haven proposals on the floor.

How do you give a desperate mom a chance to change her mind? One version of the bill gave her 48 hours to reclaim the baby or her parental rights would be terminated.

About half a dozen senators, huddling in the center aisle of the Legislative Chamber, worked out the broad outline of this agreement, while other senators debated the bill Wednesday afternoon.

After key senators involved in the negotiation reported on the agreement, Chambers ended his filibuster, which had stalled the measure.

Then the Legislature gave first-round approval to the bill with the understanding that the negotiated language would be incorporated in the measure during second-round debate, expected within two weeks, explained Sen. Arnie Stuthman of Platte Center, sponsor of the measure.

The negotiations also protect Chambers’ filibuster rights, basically giving him another eight-hour filibuster timeline.

“If the wheels come off the wagon, I have not given up any rights,” Chambers said. But the Omaha senator added that he believes senators will be able to come up with a safe haven bill that will be agreeable to most senators.

“We could see that the bill could be in trouble, so we started talking,” said Omaha Sen. Rich Pahls, who also offered a safe haven bill last year. “This (the negotiated version) sounds like it will be simpler, easier to understand,” he said.

“We need to protect the children. We want to give a person every opportunity to deliver a child to a safe place,” said Omaha Sen. Tom White who was involved in the negotiation huddle.  Then the juvenile court will sort out the other issues, like whether parental rights are terminated, whether there is an adoption or a change in custody, he said.

Speaker Mike Flood of Norfolk, also part of the huddle, said he hoped the specifics of the agreement would be worked out within seven days and the bill would quickly move on to the final stage of debate.

Forty-eight states have safe haven laws, allowing desperate mothers to leave infants at a safe place, generally hospitals and fire stations. Alaska and Nebraska are the only holdouts.

There is additional political pressure to pass a law in Nebraska this year. The city councils in Lincoln, Omaha, Nebraska City, Seward and Gretna have passed resolutions supporting a safe haven bill and Nebraska Right to Life is supporting the measure.

Opponents argue that safe haven laws encourage women to abandon infants rather than make more informed decisions about adoption, that there is no way to keep important medical information that the infant may need as an adult, and that there is no proof safe haven laws actually decrease unsafe abandonments in trash cans or city parks.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.