Child advocate urging veto of 'safe haven' expansion

By LAURA MECOY
The driving force behind a 2001 "safe haven" law to protect newborns is trying to stop a bill that would give women more time to anonymously drop off their unwanted infants at hospitals and fire stations without facing prosecution.

Debi Faris-Cifelli, who, in this Riverside County city, created the state's only cemetery devoted to abandoned infants, sought the 2001 law to save babies from ending up dead in trash cans, alleys and other out-of-the-way places.

The law gives women 72 hours to legally abandon their babies at a hospital or other designated sites.

Faris-Cifelli said that is enough time to help women "in crisis" who are so desperate to keep their infants a secret that they kill their newborns or throw them away.

She is urging the governor to veto Assembly Bill 1873, a proposed expansion of the safe haven law that would increase the drop-off time to 30 days.

The governor hasn't taken a position on the bill, but it sailed through the Legislature.

Faris-Cifelli said infants left with unwilling mothers for up to 30 days could be abused or neglected, or abusers could use the law to hide their identities by dropping off babies after the visible signs of violence have faded.

"I want that child to be placed in safe arms _ not in a dangerous situation out there where he or she can die or be neglected or abused," she said. "No child deserves that."

Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, said he wrote AB 1873 to save lives.

"I just want to give every opportunity for these babies to end up in good homes," he said.

He proposed the measure after a transient found a dead baby believed to be more than three days old behind a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in Newark in January.

Torrico said current law couldn't help that child, and three days might not be enough time for women who suffer from postpartum depression or spend the first three days of their child's life in the hospital.

"I would rather err on the side of caution and give the mother more opportunities," he said.

Faris-Cifelli said none of the newborns buried in the Calimesa cemetery she founded, the Garden of Angels, was born in a hospital. She also said the coroners' reports found 95 percent of the babies in the Garden of Angels died within their first 24 hours.The Department of Social Services, which also opposes Torrico's bill, reported that 153 babies were "safely surrendered" under the safe haven law and most were dropped off within their first 24 hours.

It said extending the time to legally abandon a child to 30 days could encourage parents to bypass adoption procedures.

Adam Pertman, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute executive director, made the same argument in urging the governor to veto AB 1873.

He said mothers choosing legalized abandonment over the adoption process may deprive fathers of their parental rights and adoptive parents and adoptees of the vital health, genealogical and historical information usually collected in the adoption process."This bill is so far over the line that only someone who is using their heart _ rather than their mind _ can be for it," he said.