Get the word out about safe havens
The outcome could have been much worse.
What if Wheaton resident Joe Logan wasn't home? What if the weather was worse? What if the newborn hadn't made a noise, alerting Logan's dog? What if no one found the baby boy, outside for at least two hours already, until it was too late?
Yes, the outcome could have been much worse. According to Dawn Geras, founder of the nonprofit Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, 27 newborns died after being illegally abandoned since 2001.
Why go back to 2001? Because that's when the state passed the Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act to help avoid these types of circumstances.
If the 24-year-old mother had left her baby in the hands of someone on duty at a hospital, emergency medical facility, fire station or police station, she would not today be possibly facing charges from the DuPage County state's attorney office.
"The people in these safe havens are trained to know the law and should respect your privacy," Geras told the Daily Herald's Elisabeth Mistretta in Saturday's edition. "It's a tragedy that doesn't have to be happening."
And yet it does. Since the law passed, 51 babies have been legally relinquished and 54 have been illegally abandoned. As mentioned above, 27 of those died.
Twenty-seven babies that could possibly have been saved.
Similar laws are now in effect in all 50 states according to the foundation Web site. And the law has been amended several times this decade to help improve it and to make sure people are aware of it. The fact that babies are still being abandoned illegally and some continue to die, however, shows that communication of the law needs to be improved.
All personnel at legal safe havens need to make sure they are up to date on the procedures. And all doctors should have information for mothers readily available.
Finally, as the foundation Web site says at http://www.saveabandonedbabies.org anyone can get the word out. Printable versions of the foundation's lifesaving notice, poster and brochures are available. They encourage you to reprint them in newsletters or church bulletins and to post them on Web sites and on bulletin boards in schools and grocery stores.
The key is to get the word out about safe havens. This is an important law that we believe can help save lives of newborns and protect parents who find themselves in dire situations. It's terribly unfortunate that today the mother of that baby boy - who authorities say is improving each day, thankfully - could be facing criminal charges when she had other options.
She is lucky - as is the baby that we hope will eventually find a loving, adoptive home - that Joe Logan and his dog, Redbelly, were home in Wheaton Friday. They saved that baby just as this law has and can in the future save many more.