Teen Mother Turns Herself in to Safe Haven

Just as Nebraska’s
uniquely forgiving Safe Haven law is on the verge of being amended, a young
mother makes a case for keeping it just the way it is. Currently, it’s legal to
abandon children up to 18 years of age at a hospital. But since the law went
into affect in July, so many teenagers (and zero babies) have been abandoned at
hospitals that Nebraskan legislators are looking to revise the law so that it’s
only applicable to infants who are three days old or younger.

But here’s an important use of the country’s only teen-inclusive
safe-haven law that many hadn’t foreseen: a 16-year-old mom walked into an Omaha hospital, hoping to
find a safe haven not only for her 10 month-old son, but for herself.

The young mother said that she had been physically and
emotionally abused, and that her mother had kicked her out of the house. The teenager and her son are now in foster care, and her mother will most likely face
prosecution.