11-22-2008, 05:12 PM
This just blows me away-- Nebraska enacted a safe haven law and instead of newborns people used it to dump children up to 17.
Sorry if this is old to some- it's the first I've caught of it.
Sorry if this is old to some- it's the first I've caught of it.
Neb. gov. signs bill on safe-haven age limit
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has signed a bill that adds a 30-day age limit to a safe-haven law led to the abandonment of nearly three dozen children, including some teenagers as old as 17. The law goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Heineman signed the bill on Friday afternoon without fanfare and did not immediately issue a statement on the law.
The Legislature, meeting in special session, gave its final approval earlier Friday.
Nebraska has been the only safe-haven law in the country without an age limit. Designed to prevent newborns from being dumped in trash bins or worse, the law instead led to the drop-off of 35 children since September, none of them infants.
They have mostly been preteens and teenagers as old as 17.