State Law

Nebraska?s Safe Haven Law vs. Connecticut?s Safe Haven Law

By Ryan

You’ve probably read or heard about Nebraska’s safe haven law and its horrible and presumably unintended effects. Nebraska is now set to change this law.

Here’s the text of the Nebraska law:

“No person shall be prosecuted for any crime based solely upon the act of leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty at a hospital licensed by the State of Nebraska. The hospital shall promptly contact appropriate authorities to take custody of the child.”

Here’s the relevant text of Connecticut’s Safe Haven Law (bolded emphasis is mine):

(a) Any person having the charge of any child under the age of six years who exposes such child in any place, with intent wholly to abandon such child, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars and imprisoned not more than five years.

(b) The act of a parent or agent leaving an infant thirty days or younger with a designated employee pursuant to section 17a-58 shall not constitute a violation of this section.

The reason Connecticut doesn’t have Nebraska’s problem with teenagers being left at hospitals comes down to an additional 6 words: “…..an infant thirty days or younger…”

Full post as published by A Connecticut Law Blog on November 20, 2008 (boomark / email).