NCFA Media : Press Releases

Opponents of Option of Privacy in Adoption Attack Safe Haven Laws

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:
Pat Bergstresser
(703) 299-6633, ext. 122
Email: pbergstresser@infantadopt.org

March 15, 2003 - The Boston City Council unanimously passed the latest Safe Haven measure this week, just after the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute issued a flawed report dismissing these laws as "causing problems, not solving them." Safe Haven laws have been sweeping the country, with 44 state legislatures enacting them in only three years. Massachusetts is one of six states and the District of Columbia not to pass one yet; Boston decided not to wait.

The Donaldson report is careful not to state categorically that Safe Haven laws have saved no babies’ lives. But according to Thomas Atwood, President and CEO of National Council For Adoption: "The report carefully avoids the obvious question, just how many babies do these laws have to rescue from death in a dumpster, in order for their opponents to consider them worthwhile?" None of the advocates of Safe Haven laws ever suggested that the policy would end unsafe infant abandonment. "If one baby’s life is saved, the Safe Haven law is worth it," said Atwood, "and there is no doubt that Safe Havens are saving lives."

One might ask, who could oppose such a law? Indeed, many of the 44 state legislatures have passed these laws virtually unanimously. The strongest opponents of Safe Haven laws are the same activists and academics who advocate eliminating the option of privacy in adoption. Highest on their agenda is allowing adopted persons to open confidential adoption records unilaterally and retroactively without the knowledge or consent of birthparents, despite the birthparents’ having been promised privacy at the time of their placements. Among the Donaldson Institute’s top priorities is "educating policymakers and the public about the importance of giving adopted people access to information about their origins." Because Safe Haven laws allow women to relinquish their newborns anonymously, these opponents see the laws as a new threat to their agenda of opening all adoption records.

Safe Havens often try to obtain the mother’s health and social history and to counsel her to go through the preferred process of adoption. But requiring Safe Havens to do so would introduce a tone that would frighten some desperate young mothers away. Moreover, genetic testing currently available provides far more information about one’s health predispositions than the medical histories of one’s biological relatives. "Counseling and informational interviews should be left to the discretion of the Safe Haven workers, not mandated," said Atwood.

It would take a study longer than the flawed Donaldson report itself to elaborate all its weaknesses. It is one-sided: Safe Haven advocates and their arguments are not adequately or fairly represented. The report contains numerous unsubstantiated assertions and adds little to our knowledge of how Safe Haven laws are being implemented. One would think, for example, that a report on Safe Haven laws claiming to be "based on the most extensive research to date" would include numerous comments from Safe Haven directors from across the country, describing their work and the results of their programs.

But the "extensive research" did not extend across town, let alone, across the country. If the New York City-based Donaldson Institute had consulted New York’s Safe Haven director Tim Jaccard, it would have found that NY Safe Havens received 27 babies last year. They successfully counseled 17 mothers to relinquish their babies through adoption; 10 relinquished anonymously. Zero infants were found abandoned in New York during that time. Are opponents of Safe Havens prepared to risk these 10 or 27 babies’ lives on the hunch that every one of them would have been abandoned safely anyway? Boston and 44 state legislatures are not.

About NCFA

Since 1980, the NCFA has been a leading voice among national child adoption and welfare organizations. NCFA is a research, education, and advocacy nonprofit that provides adoption information, promotes ethical adoption practices, works to shape public policy and legislation regarding adoption issues, and serves as a continuing resource to women with unplanned pregnancies, adoptive families, and those seeking to adopt.

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