According to the National Safe Haven Alliance, “31 babies were placed in dumpsters found in backpacks, or discarded in other dangerous locations” in the United States in 2021 alone. Twenty-two of them died.
In that same year, the alliance reported that “73 babies were saved by Safe Haven laws” — legal statutes that allow parents to relinquish their infants without any consequence.
Utah was one of the first states to enact what’s also known as “baby Moses laws,” in 2001, according to The Deseret News, which reported that through 2020, 40 babies had been saved that way. Every state now has some form of Safe Haven law.
From 1999 to 2021, at least 4,505 infants were surrendered through safe haven laws nationwide, according to the most recent report from the National Safe Haven Alliance.
In Utah, only hospitals can receive babies this way.
“A parent or a parent’s designee may safely relinquish a newborn child at a hospital in accordance with this part and retain complete anonymity,” Utah’s code states. “Personnel employed by a hospital shall accept a newborn child who is relinquished under this part, and may presume that the individual relinquishing is the newborn child’s parent or the parent’s designee.”
Though the code specifies that the member of the hospital staff can ask questions pertinent to the child’s medical history, the individual dropping off the infant can legally remain nameless.
Once in the hospital’s custody, the relinquished infant is to receive necessary care and — if both of the infant’s parents remain anonymous — prepare a birth certificate stating their parents are unknown.
For more information, you can call Utah Newborn Safe Haven’s hotline at 866-458-0058 or email the organization at [email protected]. Online: For more information, visit www.utahsafehaven.org.