The Chicago-based Save Abandoned Babies Foundation launched a new photo contest Thursday in an effort to draw attention to the Illinois law that allows parents to legally hand over their babies to someone inside a so-called Safe Haven.
The contest invites anyone to take a creative photograph of a Safe Haven sign, which is posted outside any police station, fire station or hospital. The sign is a signal that the facility will accept babies from parents who cannot keep them. Photos can include people or appropriate props.
All submissions will go on the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation Facebook page. The five photos with the most "likes" will each win a $100 prize. The contest is open to all Illinois residents age 18 or older. Photo entries can be e-mailed to PhotoContest@SaveAbandonedBabies.org.
"Helping to bring awareness to this organization is something very important. If the right ears hear about what we're doing, a child's life could be saved," said Ashley Bradarich, Miss Illinois U.S.A., who was joined by Chicago sports personality Chet Coppock and former Chicago Bulls player Bob Love at Thursday's Chicago event announcing the contest.
The Safe Haven law allows a parent to hand an unharmed baby, 30 days old or younger, to staff at a hospital, fire or police station, without fear of arrest. Even with the law in place, 62 babies have been illegally abandoned, and 30 of them have not survived.
Comments
When a child, usually a baby, gets abandon in an alley, or a trash bin, invariably there are groans and moans about why didn’t the mother use the state’s Safe Haven law to drop the child with at a Hospital ER, Fire Station, or with a police officer? Usually the answer is a lack of knowledge, and/or education, about the Safe Haven programs, but is that really the case? With as much as it is taught about in schools, as well as shown in the news, on the Internet, and other Medias, one has to wonder how any young woman would not know about.
No, I think it is more an issue of “This is my child, of my body, to do with as I see fit” attitude. Whether this has grown out of the “Me First” idea, or the right to abort the life of a child, regardless of the child’s stage of development, the fact is that this is the choice that young mother believe they have a right to make. She does not want the child, and does not want anyone else, including the child’s father, to take the child.
Yes, there is the usual claim that the man likely ran out on her during the pregnancy, however the number of fathers suing to get children abandon through the Safe Haven program, shows otherwise. At least in those cases where they are actually told they have a child. The number of retroactive child support orders, taken out on men who never knew they have a child, shows just how women will hide the fact from them.
The Safe Haven system is a good idea, however a valid effort needs to be made to find the father and allow him to take the child, if that is what he so desires. However, on the other side of the issue, should the men also be allowed the right to abandon their rights to an unwanted child?
http://Single_Fathers_N_Safe_Haven_Laws.Dads-House.org
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