LINCOLN, Neb. — Deciding he could wait no longer to address what has become a state embarrassment, Gov. Dave Heineman said Wednesday he will call a special legislative session to amend Nebraska’s loosely worded safe-haven law, which in just a few months has allowed parents to abandon nearly two dozen children as old as 17.
Heineman had planned to wait until the next regular legislative session convened in January, but changed his mind as the number of children dropped off at hospitals grew. Two teenagers were abandoned Tuesday night alone, and three children dropped off previously did not even live in Nebraska.
“We’ve had five in the last eight days,” Heineman said in explaining why he called a special session. “We all hoped this wouldn’t happen.”
The special session will begin Nov. 14. That’s less than two months before the regular legislative session, but the governor and others see a need to act quickly.
“This law needs to be changed to reflect its original intent” to protect infants, Heineman said Wednesday.
The law, which was signed by Heineman in February and took effect in July, prohibits parents from being prosecuted for leaving a child at a hospital.
Use of the word “child” was a compromise after legislators disagreed about what age limit to set, but that decision made Nebraska’s safe-haven law the broadest in the nation by far. Most states have age limits ranging from 3 days to about a month.
As of Wednesday, 23 children had been left at Nebraska hospitals, including nine from one family and children from Iowa, Michigan and Georgia. Many are teenagers, only one is younger than 6 and and none are babies.
Most Nebraska lawmakers have agreed upon revisions that would put an age limit of 3 days on infants who could be dropped off at hospitals.
A 17-year-old Lincoln boy was left at a Lincoln hospital Tuesday night. State officials said the boy’s stepfather and mother took him to BryanLGH Medical Center West and that the boy was in an emergency shelter.
Lincoln police Capt. Jim Thoms said the parents told officers the boy wouldn’t follow the parents’ rules and that they couldn’t afford some programs he needed.
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