SafeHaven for Babies
Discarded Babies Die...
Please, make it stop.
Here’s how: 1. Cast your VOTE to help make legislative change
2. Write your MPP & MP - let them know that Baby DEATH by
Abandonment is unacceptable in Canada
3. Tell everyone you know about this abuse of newborn children
4. Send people to our website for more information
5. Make a donation to help CCAA further this initiative
Links:
Three dead newborns found hidden in Calgary home.
Ellen Campbell interviewed by Mark Kelley on CBC's Connect on saving babies from death by abandonment. Watch it here.
This is a link to a group on Facebook regarding the NB case of baby abandoned in snowbank. There are over 75,000 members in this group. If you know any of them - please ask them to come to abusehurts.com and add their vote.
Angel's Cradle Officially Open
Surrey Woman Charged After Dead Baby Found in Dumpster - (click here for related update)
Through a program called Huggum’s Hope Memorial, the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness (CCAA) buries abandoned babies that have died. We would prefer that we never again have to bury another infant because of DEATH by Abandonment. We need your help to make it stop.
Infanticide and infant abandonment are worldwide issues. In the U.S., the law to protect newborns is called SafeHaven, and we’ve been uncovering news of SafeHaven-type laws being enacted from as far away as Khartoum and in the Islamic Republic of Sudan where babies were being abandoned at a rate of 45 to 50 a month until recently. It has been reported that, because of intervention by world leaders, SafeHaven-type legislation has laid the groundwork for legal reform and abandonment of babies is becoming less frequent.
Protecting Newborns
From DEATH by Abandonment
SafeHaven designates specific locations as safe places for desperate parents to surrender their unharmed newborns legally and confidentially. This legislation exists in several European countries and in 50 States in the U.S. Since enactment, the law has saved nearly 2,000 babies in the U.S. alone.
"Such promising results underscore the effectiveness of SafeHaven type laws and the importance of raising public awareness and educating professional communities about this positive, legal alternative."*NOTE: *Information Manual, There Is A Secret Safe Place for Newborns,AMT Children of Hope -Timothy Jaccard, President/Director
Canada is lagging very far behind withNOT ONE province having a law to protect the most vulnerable members of our society.
Infant DEATH by Abandonment in Canada
Each year, in our own country, several babies succumb to suffocation, drowning, exposure to the elements, dehydration, starvation or other painful deaths because they have been discarded by a parent.
Stories of babies being born in public washrooms or in back alley’s do not always make the headlines and, unless news media coverage is extensive, the fate of these infants often goes unnoticed.
Yet, every once in a while, the grim truth hits us all and we are found lacking in knowledge as to what can be done.
There IS a way to protect these most vulnerable members of our society.
the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness...
Is Determined to Ensure Safety for Newborn Babies
Discarding a newborn baby is the earliest form of abuse.
Because of its nature and our governmental system, SafeHaven-type law must be presented and the law enacted in each individual province.The CCAA has begun the process of bringing the issue of baby DEATH by Abandonment before the Canadian people. We believe that the proposed legislation to provide safety for new-born babies is one that every parent, grandparent and extended family member will embrace and we will be looking to you, our supporters, to helpmake it happen.
Here’s what YOU can do:
1. Cast your VOTE to help make legislative change
2. Write your MPP & MP - let them know that Baby DEATH by
Abandonment is unacceptable in Canada
3. Tell everyone you know about this abuse of newborn children
4. Send people to our website for more information
5. Make a donation to help CCAA further this initiative
Please, make it stop. Take a stand and give us your vote! Click here to download 8.5 x 11 - size poster Click here to download Discarded Babies Die info piece
BACKGROUNDER IN BRIEF
CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ABUSE AWARENESS
SAFE HAVEN-TYPE LEGISLATION FOR CANADA
What is it?
Legislation that exists allowing a mother (parent) to surrender her newborn/infant to a “safe haven”. The purpose is to protect unwanted infants from being killed, dumped or abandoned in an unsafe place. The legislation allows a mother to leave her infant safely, without fear of prosecution or of being identified. Safe havens always include a hospital or its emergency room and can include other health care provider locations and police or fire departments.
Current legislation limits the age at which a mother can anonymously relinquish her baby. Many jurisdictions have set the limit at 72 hours after birth. Another large group of jurisdictions place the limit at one month and others have extended it to 60 or even 90 days.
History:
In 1998 the District Attorney in the city of Mobile, Alabama established a “safe haven” for unwanted infants. The pilot resulted in 5 babies being brought to local hospital emergency rooms. In 1999 Texas became the first state to pass “safe haven” legislation. A large number of states passed “safe haven” legislation in 2000 and 2001 and since, all 50 states have passed a law.
Although politicians in Saskatchewan (after two very public unsafe abandonments) have publicly mused about the possibility of introducing legislation, there is no “safe haven-type” legislation passed in any Canadian province or territory. The CCAA is not aware of any legislation that has been introduced and currently before a legislature.
Does it work?
Some states have made their “safe haven” legislation results public. The State of New Jersey enacted legislation in the year 2000. Their average reported yearly illegal abandonment rate (2000 through 2007) dropped 50 per cent (from 8 a year to 4) after the legislation was passed.
Between August 2000 (passage of the legislation) and August 2007, 33 babies were safely surrendered. Seven are living with their parents (or relatives who came forward), 14 have been adopted and the remaining children are in some stage of the adoption process.
In addition several other children were surrendered in ways that did not comply (i.e. taken to a fire station or family services office) with the legislation, but are now safe. This is likely as a result of awareness of the “safe haven” legislation. Finally, there are mothers that have explored other safe alternatives as a result of awareness brought to the issue by the safe haven legislation and the awareness and promotion of it.
To date, since Safe Haven legislation has been in effect in the United States there have been nearly 2000 babies surrendered and spared painful deaths by starvation, dehydration and exposure to the elements and animals.
Key to ongoing success:
For safe haven legislation to work there must be ongoing education and promotion of its existence. There is also a value added benefit of reaching out to at risk mothers-to-be about the options available to them. Notwithstanding the original goal of the legislation to ensure that no child is abandoned or murdered, other at risk newborns are more likely to be given up for adoption and not subject to an abusive or at-risk life.
Cost for an ongoing education and awareness campaign would be minimal but having said that, the nature of the campaign would most certainly make it eligible for Victim Justice Fund (VJF) support and in doing so not require any expenditures from general revenues.
Stakeholder support:
The CCAA has not (yet) approached other similar organizations looking for “stakeholder support”. We believe that introduction of this kind of legislation would result in legitimate and relevant organizations/NGO’s willing to provide support.
In addition, if this government agreed to introduce “safe haven-type” legislation the CCAA would be prepared to approach members of the opposition parties for the purpose of gaining support/ reduced partisanship for the Bill.
Canadian/Ontario Context:
Without a doubt, we do not have the same number of abandonment cases that exist south of the 49th parallel. Having said that they do occur and a quick “google” search provided information about several well-publicized cases over the past two to three years, two in Saskatchewan, one in Quebec and one in New Brunswick, ababy boy's whose body was found April 4th 2009, nearSalisbury. It is believed the baby was born in November/08 and left alone in the cold, in a snow bank all winter. The discovery marked the fourth time in as many years that a baby’s body was found abandoned in NB. In the other three cases, two of the bodies were discovered in St. Stephen and one in Dalhousie.
In fact, it is these kinds of tragedies that have convinced the CCAA that something needs to be done. We have begun the process by ensuring that those children who have died as a result of this first and most ultimate abuse are given a dignified and proper burial. With the help of Elgin Mills Cemetery in Richmond Hill, ON we have a beautiful plot and headstone on site. The Simple Alternative Funeral Centre provides the service and the Ontario Coroner’s office allowed us to properly bury to abandoned babies that otherwise would have been given paupers graves and would not otherwise be remembered in life or death.Our first service took place on October 12th, 2007 for baby Leif (found in the woods near North Bay who became the subject of a homicide investigation) and Baby Kintyre whose mummified remains were found in the walls of a house under renovation in east-end Toronto and yet another Ontario baby was memorialized by CCAA in 2009.
We suspect that an in-depth archival media scan coupled with government access to police/child welfare records would reveal that it is an on-going issue, with some cases ending tragically. We also realize that based on the U.S. numbers we expect that Canada’s numbers will be represented accordingly. Yet, until we are up and running with a “safe haven-type” legislation and have received babies into safety we cannot know how many babies are abandoned, only the numbers of babies whose remains are actually located.
Regrettably, we know that we will have to provide this service to more infants that have succumbed under deplorable conditions.