Georgia and Tennessee Develop Protected Haven Legal guidelines to Save Infants From Infanticide
Georgia and Tennessee have expanded their safe haven laws, providing more locations and options for mothers in crisis to anonymously surrender newborns safely, aiming to prevent infant abandonment and infanticide.
In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 350 on May 13, authorizing the installation of “baby boxes” at fire stations, police stations, hospitals and ambulance services with 24/7 emergency medical staff.
The legislation makes Georgia the 24th state to legalize newborn safety devices and extends the period during which a newborn can be legally surrendered from 30 days to 45 days after birth.
The bill passed the House 164-4 and the Senate 49-1 in early April.
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Under the law, facilities must retrieve the infant within five minutes after an alarm is triggered. The boxes include alarms notifying 911 and informational pamphlets for surrendering mothers. Surrendered babies are transferred to the Department of Human Services for foster care and potential adoption.
Rep. Mike Cameron, R-Rossville, the bill’s sponsor, highlighted the challenges some mothers face.
“Babies are born in all kinds of places,” Cameron said. “They know they can’t take care of the baby, surrender it and get it to a place where some people can get it into foster care and get it adopted and where it’ll be loved and have a chance to flourish and grow.”
“It has to be a difficult situation for a mother to want to surrender a child, and we want to make that as comfortable as possible, and least judgmental as possible,” he said.
Pam Stenzel, development director and hotline coordinator with Safe Haven, pointed to the success of the program elsewhere.
“We started there in Indiana, and now we’ve grown to 420 boxes in 23 states that have legalized this,” Stenzel said. “78 babies have successfully been surrendered in a baby box.”
She noted the bill imposes no financial burden on the state.
“We aren’t asking Georgia, the state of Georgia, for money — we’re just asking for Georgia to make this device a legal form of surrender,” Stenzel said.
In Tennessee, the legislature passed a bill adding ambulance stations to the list of approved safe haven locations. The measure also clarifies staffing and monitoring requirements to guarantee immediate care for surrendered infants.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ed Butler, is expected to be signed by Gov. Bill Lee.
Tennessee’s Safe Haven Law allows mothers to surrender unharmed newborns up to 45 days old at designated facilities without fear of prosecution. Nearly 150 infants have been safely surrendered in the state since the law took effect in 2001.
Proponents in both states say the expansions give vulnerable mothers compassionate alternatives while ensuring babies are protected and given the opportunity for loving adoptive or foster homes.
