Little-known law could have prevented tragedy Little-known law could have prevented tragedy (July 14, 2004)

Newborn's death by abandonment sparks countywide task force

by Sue Dremann

Public awareness of a statewide law that provides parents of unwanted children the opportunity to give up the child -- no questions asked -- is so poor that many people, including police officers and graduate-level social workers, do not know of its existence, according to social workers and members of law enforcement.

Alarmed by a sudden increase of dumped and abandoned newborns in Santa Clara County, highlighted this past week by the discovery of an infant's badly decomposed body in Palo Alto, a countywide task force will be set up to convey the message that unwanted newborns need not be abandoned.

"I've spoken to a veteran of the police force who said in 20 years she's never seen a case of infant abandonment in Palo Alto," said Palo Alto police Detective Kara Apple. However, she added, awareness of the Infant Safe Haven law -- enacted in 2001 -- is very low.

"The news hasn't gotten out about it," she said. "I didn't know about the law myself until I saw it on TV."

Communication, officials said, is key to preventing tragedies such as the dead newborn found last week in a dumpster near the Palo Alto Days Inn and the Palo Alto Redwoods condominium complex. Maria Ana Quinones, a 22-year-old Days Inn maid and resident of Santa Clara, was charged Saturday night on suspicion of leaving the child to die.

She is believed to be the infant's mother, according to police.

The abandonment of a child in Palo Alto is only one of three instances that have taken place in the Bay Area the past month. In one of those cases, an infant was found screaming and covered in excrement in a portable toilet by Salinas farm workers. The other case involved a baby boy dropped in a dumpster in San Jose. In that instance, the mother called 9-1-1 to alert paramedics of the child's plight.

"Regardless of where baby was born, it's a tragedy -- especially since we have laws that allow parents to take the baby to any hospital and gives them a complete reprieve from any recriminations," said county Supervisor Liz Kniss, who chairs the Santa Clara County's health and hospital committee. "That said, it is our responsibility as public officials to get the message out."

State law allows babies to be dropped off within 72 hours of birth at a hospital, with no questions asked. Because of the fear some have of dropping a child in a public place where security guards are present -- such as a hospital emergency room -- the law has been expanded in many cities to include local clinics and other care-giving venues. Santa Clara County hasn't enacted such a plan as of yet, but county officials are looking at creating more options, said Gwendolyn Mitchell, director of public communications for the county.

Given the lack of knowledge concerning the Safe Haven law, social workers said something clearly must be done.

"The very first question I ask my graduate school students is if they know what AB 1368 is. These are graduate school social workers, and they don't know what it is," said Allan Rawland, interim director of the bachelor's social work program and faculty member of the Department of Social Work at San Jose State University.

Rawland and his students have been working for the past three years on the issue of creating an effective task force throughout the county to apprise people of the Safe Haven law.

"The one thing I fear is that the publicity will stereotype these ethnic women," Rawland said. The last three incidents have involved Hispanic women, but Rawland was quick to point out that statistics reach across every race and socio-economic class -- including white women.

"According to the California Department of Social Services, there is no profile of women most likely to abandon infants. The target audience for aggressive outreach is females ages 14 to 38, Mitchell said.

"But there are some commonalities across all cases seen: A denial or concealment of pregnancy, self-imposed silence and isolation during pregnancy, lack of a support system, mother's fear of 'the system', fear of the pregnancy being discovered, and lack of prenatal care."

Rawland said the motivating factor for such tragedies is primarily fear -- fear over discovery due to religious beliefs: fear of parents and husbands; or fear of imprisonment by giving the child over to authorities.

Such fears can transcend economic barriers, Rawland said. "A teenager gets pregnant. They come from a very religious family and can't have an abortion, or can't afford one. It gets very complicated," he added.

Outreach hasn't been a priority in many communities because the numbers if incidents have appeared to be so small, but Rawland said such numbers are deceiving. Some people have interpreted abandonment as an option to abortion -- something we don't want to consider in our culture but is there.

"How many babies are put into dumpsters that aren't discovered? How many are ending up in the landfill that we don't know anything about?," he asked.

Staff writer Sue Dremann can be e-mailed at sdremann@paweekly.com

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