‘Safe Haven’ law ignores fathers’ rights

A day doesn’t go by that you won’t find a story about a baby that has been abandoned by his or her mother. Oftentimes, those children come from broken families or unmarried mothers who have broken ties with the father. The Illinois Safe Haven Law and its unintended consequences have vanquished the voice of the birth father and may be putting children at risk.

The law permits mothers to abandon any child unharmed within seven days of the child’s birth at a designated “safe haven” location including hospitals, fire stations and police stations. When a mother abandons a child at a “safe haven,” and the child is unharmed, no effort will be made to find the mother or charge the mother with abandonment or cruelty to a child. It is supposed to be an alternative to leaving children in trash bins, where many end up.

But what is missing from this law is an important component. The law assumes that both parents have abandoned the baby, but what is often the case is that the father is never informed. No effort is made by authorities to determine if the father of the abandoned child may wish to have custody.

Because the two parents are often not married, the rights of the fathers are often pushed aside or subjugated to the will and whim of the birth mother. That is unfair to a child and to those fathers who would be willing to assume responsibility for the abandoned child’s well-being.

Society needs to ensure that a birth father of a baby is first entitled to notice and the opportunity to assume custody before his child is abandoned and left with strangers forever.

Jeffery M. Leving

Chicago