PSB provides safe haven for babies

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL
Commercial-News

DANVILLE March 24, 2008 10:48 am

— For the unsure parent of a newborn child, the walls of the Public Safety Building hold more than just the county jail.
As of last week, a sign proclaiming “Safe Babies. Safe Place. Safe Haven.” was posted near the entrance of the building at 2 E. South St. to establish it as a place where a newborn infant can safely be abandoned.
The sign is part of the 2001 Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act which currently provides that every hospital, fire station, emergency medical facility and police station is required to accept any abandoned newborns.
Vermilion County Sheriff Pat Hartshorn said personnel follow the same process any time this happens. The baby — who must be less than seven days old — is taken and the parent is not detained, questioned or asked for any identification.
Hartshorn said he has encountered five or six cases of babies abandoned in trash containers as well as a cemetery and once at a funeral home during his long law enforcement career.
The law, however, gives the parent another option.
“The best thing is we would rather you hand the baby over to us than recover it dead somewhere,” Hartshorn said.
According to volunteer group Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, 36 babies have been turned over since the law went into effect in August 2001.
The act will get exposure next month when, by governor’s proclamation, April 8 is recognized as Save Abandoned Babies Day in Illinois.
The day comes amid events slated for April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month. The intent is to increase public awareness by explaining what it means and introducing signage similar to what’s been posted outside the Public Safety Building.
Up until now, it has not gotten close to the publicity it should, said state Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville. Black was a co-sponsor of the bill.
Black said the bill’s alternative is intended to help a person — usually a young mother — who is under tremendous stress at the time.
“All we’re trying to say is ‘Look, if you give birth and you don’t think you can handle it, don’t kill the baby. Drop it off and hopefully things will work out,’” he said.
Black stressed there are conditions to the law. If there is evidence of either abuse of neglect of the child, the person turning over the child will not receive the immunity otherwise allowed.
He added it does allow the person some conditional methods by which they can try to petition for right of custody of the child if they change their mind within a certain frame of time.
The fact 36 children have been relinquished under the law makes it “well worth the time and energy we put into passing this,” Black said.