Family Forum / Parenting / Single Parents / August 2004

Feminist do the same thing ALL the time.  Leave it to a feminist to
think its bad when men do it.

Sure they did and that is the result.  What do you think of the
problems listed below.
Despite law, abandoned babies in legal limbo

January 30, 2002

BY L.L. BRASIER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

It seemed an enlightened law: allow desperate mothers to abandon
unwanted newborns at hospitals rather than in trash bins or on church
steps so that the babies can be adopted.

But after the first year, half of the infants abandoned in Michigan
remain in legal limbo as courts grapple with unforeseen constitutional
snares.

The law, like other adoption procedures, shields details and hides
identities from public scrutiny. But interviews with attorneys, judges
and court officials and a review of available records show the law has
not worked as hoped.

"It's a mess," said Beverly Hills attorney Karen Cook, who has worked
on two of the cases in Oakland County Circuit Court.

Since the law took effect Jan. 1, 2001, 12 babies have been left at
Michigan hospitals: five in Oakland County, four in Wayne County, and
one each in Crawford, Kalamazoo and Muskegon counties. But only half
have been placed in adoptive homes because of the law's shortcomings,
especially concerning fathers' rights.

At issue is that the law allows birth mothers to give up their babies
without giving enough information to contact the fathers.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Patrick Brennan has had three abandoned
baby cases come before him, and in each, he has refused to terminate
the rights of the absentee fathers. Brennan said he is concerned that
a father may be unaware that the child was abandoned and may not to
cede his parental rights. "A parent's right to parent their child is
one of the most sacred rights we have," he said. "I don't think there
is due process of law here. I have some concerns about whether fathers
have sufficient notice."

Brennan said he envisions a case of a father emerging years later to
lay claim to a child. The law, known as the Safe Delivery Act, was
drafted after several highly publicized abandonments. One involved a
baby who died in November 1999 after being left wrapped in a shirt
outside a Warren church, and another was of a 3-day-old child who
survived being left in a cardboard box at a Lansing car wash. State
Sens. Shirley Johnson, R-Royal Oak, and Joanne Emmons, R-Big Rapids,
introduced laws that allowed parents to surrender their babies at
hospitals, police stations or firehouses, without fear of prosecution.
The law doesn't require the surrendering parent to provide information
about the other parent, although the parent is asked to do so. Johnson
dismissed criticism that the law gives short shrift to fathers:"If
you've impregnated this woman, why aren't you around?"

The law's requirement to advertise the abandonment and pending
adoption in local papers is enough notice, she said.

Johnson said the law is a success because it has saved babies, but it
has uncovered surprising facts. For one, it's not frightened teenagers
turning over babies, but women in their 20s and 30s -- including one
who said she was unmarried so she could get rid of a child without
telling her husband. The man, discovered after Oakland County workers
found a marriage license, agreed to terminate his parental rights. In
another case, a mother gave just the father's first name. His full
name was found on a personal protection order the mother had taken out
against him.

Court workers tracked down the man in the Oakland County Jail, and he
is seeking custody of the child.

In a third case, court workers discovered the mother had adopted out
two other children, and tried to use the new law for her third child
because a standard adoption took too long.

Also in Oakland Circuit Court, a baby is in foster care while a judge
refuses to proceed because the mother won't name the father.

Abandoned children who have not been adopted because of legal problems
under the new law must undergo a standard lengthy adoption while
living in foster care.

The new law was designed to cut bureaucratic tape and quickly place
babies in adoptive homes.

Lauran Howard, chief of adoption and intake support services for
Oakland County, said the law needs tweaking, particularly to address
fathers' rights.

"Once you've saved the baby at the hospital, you need to go back and
shore up the legal problems with the fathers," Howard said.

Michigan is not alone in struggling with the problem. Since 1999, 30
states have enacted laws similar to Michigan's. The father's role in
such laws is under scrutiny.

"This is bad law for fathers," said attorney Larry Leving, who speaks
nationally on the issue. Leving of Chicago said he is researching
cases that could be used to overturn Illinois' abandonment law, which
is similar to Michigan's.

"These laws, right now, are our greatest concern," he said.