A baby boy born June 5th is the 44th child to be turned over to the state under Iowa’s “Safe Haven” law.
The law allows parents to leave a child who’s up to 30 days old at a hospital or health care facility and they will not be charged with abandonment. The children are turned over to foster or adoptive parents.
Iowa’s Safe Haven law was passed in 2002 after an eastern Iowa teenager gave birth at home — and abandoned the dead baby in a snowbank.