Nebraska Governor Calls Special Session to Revise Safe Haven Law

By Aaron Poehler

Published on October 29, 2008

Governor Dave Heineman announced today that a special session of Nebraska's legislature will be held next month in order to revise the state's controversial safe-haven law and limit its scope to infants.

Under the law, children as old as 18 can be abandoned by parents at any state-licensed hospital without fear of prosecution. Since the law took effect July 18 of this year, a total of 24 children have been dropped off by parents seeking to take advantage of the law.

Republican state Sen. Arnie Stuthman, co-author of the bill, stated that the intention behind it was to protect newborn infants from abandonment, but that the scope of the bill was changed in order to gain enough support for passage. All 50 US States currently have some form of safe haven law, though no other state allows abandonment of any child older than 1 year old. Not one child abandoned under Nebraska's current law has been an infant; most have been between the ages of 11 and 15.

The special session is currently scheduled to commence on Nov. 14. According to Nebraska Legislative Speaker Mike Flood, 40 of the 49 state senators have already agreed to support an amendment limiting the scope of the law to apply only to infants up to three days old.

 

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