In 2001, an important question was raised in the Utah Legislature: what to do about Utah’s abandoned newborns. Salt Lake City Democratic state Rep. Patrice Arent was one of the principal architects of Utah’s Safe Haven Law.
“I had heard, as many people had, about babies ending up in dumpsters and starting looking around for what could we do about this. I proposed a law where people could anonymously bring the newborn into a hospital, drop it off, and they could go on with their lives,” Arent said. “When I was working on the law, I would get these anonymous calls in the middle of the night from women from grocery store payphones and things like that (this was before cell phones) saying that they had left their baby in a dumpster years ago and they didn’t want other people to have to live with the guilt they were living with.”
The law has allowed mothers to surrender custody of their infants without facing legal repercussions. At least 40 known cases have occurred in Utah, with the actual number probably higher. Arent said that the anonymous aspect of the law has been crucial for its success.
“These are situations where women are panicky, their desperate and so there are all kinds of situations. The anonymity has been absolutely critical. Whenever we talk about this law, we always make sure people understand it’s anonymous,” she said. “The more people that find out about this law, frankly, the more infants we save. 15 years ago, there were different young women who needed to learn about it and now we’ve got people growing up and different people who need to hear about it. It’s an alternative to some really terrible things.”
Safe Haven Laws, which were rare 15 years ago, are now in every state. Arent said that the hotline created by the law informs mothers and pregnant women about crucial resources.
“We were one of the early states pass it. Now, all fifty states have it. A very sad situation, finding a baby in a dumpster and thinking, ‘if only they had taken this infant to a hospital, then the baby would be alive in a loving home,’” she said. “Sometimes, girls are calling and they just don’t know about the resources that are available and once we tell them there are resources available to help them keep their baby, sometimes they decide to do it that way.”
Former Republican state Sen. John Valentine was the law’s Senate floor sponsor.
