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U.S. Looks to Combat Tragedy of Abandoned Babies

Aired March 23, 2000 - 6:27 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: Some unwanted children die when their parents abandon them in harsh conditions. U.S. and European officials are fighting ways to prevent this tragedy.

CNN's Detroit bureau chief Ed Garsten reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED GARSTEN, CNN DETROIT BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): This newborn baby boy was found last Sunday wrapped in a trash bag, left on a church rector's doorstep. He's in the hospital now, in critical condition. It is cases like this that have spurred hospitals in four southern Michigan counties to start Operation Safe Haven. The word is out, if you're going to abandon your baby, leave it at a hospital emergency room.

GEORGE WARD, CHIEF ASST. PROSECUTOR, WAYNE COUNTY, MICHIGAN: If you bring the baby to us within 72 hours of birth, and if there is no harm deliberately inflicted after the birth, then we take the baby, we ask no questions, and we're grateful that the baby's life has been saved.

GARSTEN: The biological parents have 30 days to change their minds. If they don't, parental rights are severed.

DR. LELAND ROPP, HENRY FORD MEDICAL CTR., MOBILE, ALABAMA: At that point, then the child is eligible for adoption and can be placed with a family that can love the child, can raise the child.

GARSTEN: Operation Safe Haven is based on a year-old program in Mobile, Alabama, where so far five babies have been left with hospitals. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that in 1991 there were 65 babies abandoned in unsafe places. Of those, eight died. But by 1998, the most recent figures available, that number grew to 105 abandoned babies with 33 deaths.

(on camera): There's now legislation in the pipeline in Michigan, 13 other states, and the District of Columbia, all designed to encourage parents who feel they can't bring up their children to leave them off at hospitals or health-care centers rather than simply abandon them.

(voice-over): In Hamburg, Germany, unwanted babies are simply slipped through a flap in this door. Sensors in the cot alert staff at a clinic next door. The baby is looked after for two months before it is put up for adoption. But critics say confidentiality programs may inadvertently threaten the health of the mother and child.

LT. SHELLEY FOY, DETROIT POLICE: Anyone that's planning on not keeping their children is not going to announce to the world, "I'm pregnant." OK, will this mother seek prenatal care? What about the mothers who are on -- using drugs?

GARSTEN: The sponsors of the program admit some pitfalls, but say they'd rather see a child end up here than here.

Ed Garsten, CNN, Dearborn, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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