HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Senate approved legislation introduced by Sen. Michele Brooks (R-50) to expand Pennsylvania’s Safe Haven Law, allowing a parent to surrender their unharmed newborn at an urgent care center.
“This bill adds to my longtime efforts to strengthen the Safe Haven Law in Pennsylvania, which is dedicated to saving innocent infants that are abandoned in harm’s way,” Brooks said. “Urgent care centers provide conveniently located, safe environments where parents can surrender unharmed newborns. By including these centers as an option, we can increase awareness efforts that save babies and offer them the chance to be raised in loving homes with families eager to provide care and support.”
Senate Bill 267 would include urgent care centers as additional safe havens for parents to surrender newborns within 28 days of birth. Currently, parents can relinquish their infants at any Pennsylvania hospital, to a police officer at a police station or to an emergency services provider at an EMS station. If the baby is unharmed and not a victim of a crime, parents will not face any penalties.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services estimates that since 2003, Pennsylvania’s Safe Haven Law has saved the lives of 50 babies. Nationwide, between 1999 and 2013, approximately 2,138 babies were safely relinquished under similar safe haven laws.
Under the proposed legislation, health care providers at urgent care centers would be required to take any abandoned newborn into protective custody and facilitate the baby’s transport to a hospital, where another health care provider would take over care. Additionally, urgent care centers that accept newborns must display signs indicating the operating hours during which parents can surrender their infants. Recent statistics indicate that more than 350 urgent care centers are currently operating in Pennsylvania.
The bill now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
CONTACT: Adam Gingrich, 717-787-1322