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Is Safe Baby Act unknown to most?

Advocates say the Lam case is a reminder of the need to publicize the law that protects the lives of newborns.

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE
Published November 4, 2005

The child-killing charges against Kieu Oanh Thi Lam illustrate the need to increase awareness of a state law that offers a way out, advocacy groups say.

"Two lives lost unnecessarily: the baby's and the mother's," said Nick Silverio, founder of A Safe Haven for Newborns, a Miami group.

Florida's Safe Baby Act allows a parent to leave an unwanted newborn - no questions asked - at a hospital, doctor's office or fire station within three days of its birth and without fear of prosecution. Anonymity is guaranteed if the baby is unharmed. Enacted in 2000, the law has protected the parents of 39 abandoned newborns.

But Lam told police she was unaware of the law, raising questions for lawmakers about a lack of funding to get the word out.

"This is such an emotional situation," said former state Rep. Sandy Murman, R-Tampa, who sponsored the bill after a string of infant abandonments in Polk and Hillsborough counties.

Since funding was cut this year, publicizing the law has mostly fallen to Silverio's nonprofit group.

Silverio, who started A Safe Haven for Newborns in memory of his wife, Gloria, who died in a car wreck, said he sent educational videos to every public middle and high school in the state, and safe-haven posters to all fire houses.

He established a 24-hour hotline in English, Spanish and Creole, and created a public service announcement aimed at helping overcome language barriers.

In the 30-second clip, a young woman is shown wandering a darkened alley with a newborn in her arms and tears streaming down her face as she approaches a trash bin. The woman lifts the lid.

Instead of yesterday's trash, however, the mother sees an almost heavenly vision of a nurse and a firefighter with arms outstretched.

"Your life matters," a message reads. "Your baby's life matters."

But Ann Jacobson, the lone volunteer at the foundation's Tampa Bay chapter, said the Lam case highlighted a serious funding problem. The result is "we're not getting the message out," she said. "This woman didn't know anything about a safe haven."

Fourteen babies have been saved this year.

Of the 39 saved since 2000, nearly half were left at fire and EMS stations, with 18 newborns dropped off at hospitals and two others handed to police and sheriff's stations. The babies were placed with private adoption agencies.

Critics of safe-haven legislation say anonymity strips an abandoned child and its adoptive parents of family medical histories, ignores a father's rights and promotes reckless prenatal care.

Advocates say the law wasn't meant to solve societal problems, but offer a last-ditch option for desperate parents.

In October 2002, a man in his early 20s, wearing a bloodied T-shirt and shorts, handed an hours-old boy to a Pinellas Park firefighter.

The man said goodbye to the newborn before stepping into the night, marking the Pinellas County's first known instance of someone using the law.

At the time, Murman credited the Department of Health's $100,000 public awareness campaign that targeted movie theatres, restaurants and bus stations. But funding has since been discontinued.

"This is something that needs to be sustained," Murman said. "You can't just put up billboards for three months and not hear the message anymore. It has to be really repetitive."

This week Viacom Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor donated at least four area billboards to A Safe Haven for Newborns. Meanwhile, Silverio has appeared on local TV and radio, seeking volunteers and donations.

Neither Bayfront Medical Center nor All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg have posted signs informing people of the law.

"I'm disappointed with that," said Dave Gerber, administrative director of patient and family services at All Children's.

"It's the most compassionate law in Florida, and for more people not to know about it is very, very sad."

[Last modified November 4, 2005, 01:42:07]