Oops, I’m sorry, I forgot–only fathers can be deadbeats. This mother who abandoned her child is not a “deadbeat” for leaving her baby at a hospital. She can walk out of the newborn girl’s life without owing any responsibility to the child she created. In fact, if anything, she’s a victim.
The article says, “[Indiana's Safe Haven Law] The parents do not have to identify themselves or explain their actions as long as the baby is unharmed.” “Parents”? So a dad who doesn’t want to take responsibility for a baby can simply take the baby to the hospital and wash his hands of all responsibility the way moms do? No, sir…
I am not without sympathy for women, particularly young women, who face unwanted pregnancies. What I oppose is society’s severe gender double standard on the issue.
Woman leaves newborn at hospital
By Vic Ryckaert
Indianapolis Star, 10/31/07
vic.ryckaert@indystar.com
Police say a woman left a newborn girl with a worker at an Eastside hospital this week.
The woman, apparently the child’s mother, stopped a Community East Hospital employee in the parking lot and handed the worker the baby girl bundled in blankets at about 12:45 p.m. on Monday, according to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police report.
“The unidentified female then stated the baby had just been born (and) that she could not take care of it,” Marion County Sheriff’s Department Special Deputy
Thomas O’Daniel wrote in his report.
Hospital worker Karen Fisher brought the child to the hospital’s nursery.
The baby is in the care of Child Protective Services, police said.
Indiana’s Safe Haven Law allows a parent who cannot care for an infant younger than 45 days old to leave the baby with staff at hospitals, police stations and firehouses. The parents do not have to identify themselves or explain their actions as long as the baby is unharmed.
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