By Theodore Decker
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A baby boy and baby girl dropped off anonymously at Columbus fire stations this month are doing well, evidence that the state’s Safe Haven law can work for children and their parents, officials said yesterday.
Columbus Division of Fire Battalion Chief David Whiting said the most recent drop-off, the baby girl, was taken Monday to Station 23 at E. Livingston Avenue and Hamilton Road by a couple who came in and spoke with firefighters about the program.
The Safe Haven law allows distressed parents to surrender newborns at hospitals and to police and firefighters without fear of criminal charges.
The couple filled out the necessary paperwork and were clearly emotional, Whiting said.
“They certainly thought long and hard about it,” he said.
Doris Calloway Moore, a spokeswoman for Franklin County Children Services, said the girl is in a foster home but some potential relatives later came forward. They are speaking with the agency.
The baby boy also was left at a city fire station. He was dropped off on March 13, though other details weren’t available. He also is in foster care, Calloway Moore said.
“It is unusual to have two back-to-back like this,” she said.
Last summer, the Safe Haven law received public attention after two women abandoned newborns in dangerous settings: one in a bag on an East Side porch and the other on a Powell roadside. Both infants survived. At the time, officials noted that both newborns could have been legally left through Safe Haven.
Calloway Moore said she’s hopeful that the media coverage of those cases and a television ad blitz airing in recent weeks might be reaching some desperate parents.
“They can make a choice that can be better for their infant and doesn’t hurt them,” she said.
Since the Safe Haven law went into effect in Ohio in 2001, more than 70 infants statewide have been surrendered under it, Calloway Moore said.
Since the Monday case, Columbus Fire Division officials have been talking about creating a new log code solely for when babies are left under Safe Haven, Whiting said.
Firefighters traditionally have logged such cases in as sick children or something similar, he said. A specialized code makes sense for future tracking and research, he said.
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