Legislators seek to make hospitals a drop off point for unwanted babies

Iowa Legislators are crafting a bill to designate the state’s hospitals as “safe haven” drop-off sites for mothers who want to give up their babies. A dead baby was discovered in the snow Sunday morning in the tiny eastern Iowa town of Chelsea. Senate President Mary Kramer has been working on a “safe haven” bill since this summer.Kramer says the thought crossed her mind yesterday that if the legislature had passed the law, the baby might have lived.Kramer says “safe haven” laws have rarely been used in the states which have ’em on the books. But she says it does provide desperate people a place to go if they need it.Kramer says the idea behind the bill is to give a desperate mother immunity from child endangerment and other charges that would be filed when a baby is abandoned if the mother takes her child to a hospital.