by Meagan Dorsch
During an emergency session today, Nebraska legislators modified the state's Safe Haven Law. According to the Unicameral Blog, the bill now limits Safe Haven provisions to infants up to 30 days old. The governor signed the bill this afternoon and it will go into effect at midnight tonight.
NCSL stated in the October 10 Thicket posting, Nebraska appeared to be the only state without an age requirement in statute. All 50 states have Safe Haven laws.
Nebraska legislators came under fire this fall after infants and teenagers were dropped off at Safe Haven locations in the Husker state. According to CNN, a total of 35 children were turned over, five of them were from other states.
Even though Nebraska has changed its law, there is still a drawback. NCSL policy analyst Nina Williams-Mbengue points out that states do not require tracking of the numbers of infants surrendered legally, nor does the federal government. This makes it difficult to assess how effective the laws truly are. Safe Haven laws have reduced, but not prevented all cases of unlawful abandonment.
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