This Just In ...

A great WI law that a lot of people don't know about

Posted by Kevin Fischer on May 12, 2011

When it comes to spending, the state of Wisconsin is pretty wasteful. Just lock me in a room for a few hours and I will assuredly find you all kinds of examples.

They’re lurking inside the dozens of informational papers written by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau on all of Wisconsin’s programs. It’s God-awful, atrocious, the absolute worst writing. But I’ve read those papers, and buried inside are various nuggets of spending that would send readers running into the dark of night screaming, “What are we doing?”

If I could, I would cut some of the waste and insert as an alternative a media marketing campaign to create awareness about one of our best laws that nobody knows about. That would be our Safe Haven law.

From a blog I wrote in July of 2008:


Two women.

Two young mothers.

Each had a decision to make.

One made the right choice; the other made a deadly one.

Here are their stories.

Last August, 19 year-old Indra Book of La Crosse gave birth to a baby girl at her home. She began breastfeeding, but then stopped just two days later. Book did so knowing that without breastfeeding, the baby girl would perish.

When the baby died, Book took the tiny child and placed it in a cooler. Sometime this past spring, Book took the cooler and tossed it in the garbage.

Book was arrested last week on preliminary charges of first-degree intentional homicide. The baby’s remains have yet to be found. Authorities still don’t know where the baby’s body and the cooler were kept between August and this spring.

Also arrested last week was 21-year-old Adam O’Connor of La Crosse, described as a friend of Book’s. He’s accused of helping to hide the body.

Mother #1. A dead baby.

Next story. Chicago, 2 a.m. Monday morning of this week. A 16-year-old gives birth. Later the same day, the mother walks into a firehouse on S. Burley Avenue, carrying her baby in a blanket. She turned the baby over to workers at the firehouse, and then left freely. The baby was taken to a local hospital and is in good condition.

Mother #2. A live, healthy baby that will be put up for adoption.

Nothing happened to Mother #2 because she merely followed a law that is in place in Illinois, Wisconsin and 27 other states. Often referred to as the “Safe Havens Law,” the Illinois law allows the parent of an unharmed baby up to seven days to turn the baby over to a staff member at a police station, fire station, hospital or other designated safe haven. The parent is then free from prosecution.

Mother #2 made the right choice and as a result, her baby is alive today, hopefully with a bright future. For whatever reason, she didn’t want the baby and took it to a place where the infant could be properly taken care of immediately.

The Chicago Tribune reports that since the Illinois law took effect in 2001, 43 babies have been safely handed over at Illinois safe havens, and 49 were illegally abandoned. Twenty-four of the 49 died.

Wisconsin also has a similar safe havens law. If it had been followed, Indra Book’s little baby girl would be alive today. Book made a conscious and horrible decision to starve her baby and then dispose of it like yesterday’s trash. All she and her “friend” had to do was hop in a car and drive to the nearest police station, drop the baby off and go home, no questions asked.

More than 30 babies have been saved because of Wisconsin’s safe havens law since 2001.

And yet, there’s an atrocious trend happening all across the country. Even though most states have safe havens laws, many babies are still being abandoned illegally instead of being dropped off at safe places.

I submit the reason more babies aren’t being tenderly taken to safe havens is because many people, especially mixed up babies having babies don’t know these laws exist. There needs to be one of those “awareness” campaigns, a public education effort we always hear about. Amidst all the talk in public schools about safe sex and condoms, could we spend a few minutes on safe havens?

Innocent newborns don’t belong in the garbage. I’d much rather have unwanted babies dropped off at places where they’ll receive all the attention they truly deserve rather than having to place a call to the undertaker.


Fast forward to May 2011, Kimberly, Wisconsin.

The evening after Mother’s Day, a woman standing in her driveway hears a man screaming that someone needed to call 9-1-1.

The man had found a bloody baby on the ground between a dumpster and the wall of a former shopping mall, now a church.

Why wasn’t the baby inside the dumpster? It was locked. There is speculation the intent was to abandon the baby in the garbage, but since the dumpster was locked, the baby was simply left on the ground.

The negligent act was so unecessary because of our Safe Haven law. Then again, one must be aware of the law in order to abide. A lock probably saved that baby’s life.

Authorities are still searching for the person who left the baby to die. Again, it was oh-so unnecessary.

No need to spend state money promoting our lottery (which I thought was not allowed) or on any number of other wasteful programs.

How about $100,000, $50,000, $25,000 on one of our best laws that nobody knows about. I’ll provide the narration on any ads for free.

You don’t want your baby? Get the baby to the proper authorities, no questions asked. Let someone love and care for that baby you carried. Let it live. Please, don’t just toss the baby in the trash.