Origins-USA denounces legalized abandonment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 20, 2008 -- Origins-USA, a national organization that advocates for mothers’ rights and keeping natural families together, is appalled that Alaska and Nebraska have become the 49th and 50th states to enact so-called “safe haven” laws. The legislation, allegedly intended to reduce incidents of infanticide, allows babies to be abandoned without risk of prosecution for whomever abandons the child.

Origins-USA joins with many adoption organizations, experts, and professionals, as well as legislators and clergy, in opposing legalized baby abandonment as immoral. So-called "safe haven” legalized abandonment does not solve the problem of unsafe infant abandonment or infanticide and may in fact encourage women to conceal pregnancies and then abandon infants while in a state of shock and denial, postpartum depression, or even postpartum psychosis. “The women who would have put their kids in a Dumpster are still doing it” despite Safe Haven legislation according to Adam Pertman, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

There is no assurance that the abandonment is the mother’s choice, or even done by the mother. Unlike the "informed consent" clauses of abortion statutes which require counseling about potential harmful effects, legalized abandonment laws prohibit on-site required counseling about the likely harmful effects of permanent separation on the mother and her baby, denying parent(s) the opportunity to discuss conventional adoption plans and options for keeping her baby, such as temporary financial assistance programs and alternative care.

Babies left are consigned a life of never knowing their origins, heritage, nor can they ever be able to inquire about their vital family medical history.

Legalized anonymous child abandonment is contrary to family preservation and protection of families in crisis and as such is opposed by Origins-USA.


Contact: Mirah Riben
Phone: 732-329-3769
PR@Origins-USA,org
http://www.Origins-USA.org

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