On campus: Baby Safe Haven Law
By Amy Hotaling

Of all places for a newborn baby to see first light, a cold dumpster shouldn't be one of them. But what do hundreds of teenage women do after they've given birth? Most are prepared, while other panic. The Baby Safe Haven law is one alternative available to young mothers who may find themselves with an unwanted baby.

Enacted in 2000, the law allows any responsible person or trained caregiver to receive an abandoned baby within five days of its birth. The infant can also be dropped off at a fire station, hospital or police station and mothers will know:

• the baby will be taken care of
• no questions will be asked 
• the police will not be called
• the secret will be safe

Office of Children and Family Services has established a toll-free hotline at 1-866-505-7233

A tragic incident that happened to Buffalo State College student Colleen Smith shone a brighter light on the law. Smith, who gave birth in her dorm room in March 2003, was convicted and sentenced to 3 ½ years after she abandoned her baby in a nearby dumpster and it died of suffocation.

Buffalo State College health officials are now strongly urging students to acknowledge the Safe Haven law if any female student finds herself in the same situation that Smith was in.

Due to this tragic event, on February 18 th Tim Jaccard brought his Baby Safe Haven message to Buffalo when BSC health educator, Gina De Peralta Thorne, asked him to speak at “Wellness Wednesdays.” Jaccard a New York City medical officer who has found many abandoned babies, both dead and alive. He felt something needed to be done so he campaigned with CSEA to help prevent the tragedy of another abandoned baby.

“Students were generally sad and shocked,” says Thorn. “No one addressed the situation and gave students an opportunity to speak up.”

Buffalo State has worked to create a grant for small projects. An awareness campaign called Healthy Babies Incentive has been created to inform and educate the students by passing out:

• stickers
• posters
• index cards
• training safe haven caretakers

Each item created from the grant contains the necessary information about the law such as local contact numbers and locations for the Buffalo area. In each orientation packet for freshman and transfer student flyers are included publicizing the nessesary information. Posters are also placed in every resident halls, buildings and the union.

“We need to blanket the campus, and let students know their options” Thorn says.

The Baby Safe Haven is not just an option for women with unwanted babies to relinquish their babies to a safe place. It is also designed to give those babies who have been abandoned and died a proper burial. In New York City dozens of babies that were abandoned were given proper burial by Jaccard, who purchased a plot of land in Long Island.