On September 25th, I wrote a post about a situation in Nebraska reported by CNN in which parents are taking advantage of the wording of a "safe haven" law intended to protect the lives of unwanted newborns and infants and are abusing the system by dropping off their unwanted teenaged children. The law as drafted lacks any age limitation, though when the bill was originally introduced, it has a supposed age limit of 72 hours. CNN reported in the article of September 25th that a state commission was to meet that same day to discuss options to deal with the problem.
Fast forward to today when CNN reports another incident of a teenager being dumped at a Nebraska hospital, this time a 14-year old girl from across the Missouri River (the stateline in this case) in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The part-time Nebraska Legislature is adjourned until January, but CNN reports that now two state legislative committees have scheduled a meeting for November 13th to discuss a remedy.
They had better hurry before more disgruntled parents decide to take advantage of a loophole in the safe haven law to shirk their parental responsibility and pawn off their teenagers on the state of Nebraska.
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