CBN.com - CALIMESA, Calif. -- In California, Governor Gray Davis recently signed the Abandoned Babies Bill. The law allows women to anonymously surrender their newborn babies to any hospital or emergency room without fear of prosecution. The mother then has two weeks to change her mind before the baby is put up for adoption.
The new law reflects a controversial trend to save the nation's unwanted newborns from their own mothers. All too often, babies are found in dumpsters, trashcans and alleyways, placed there by mothers desperate to get rid of them.
On a small plot of land in a town just outside of Los Angeles stand 44 white crosses. They represent the innocent lives of 44 abandoned babies.
"When we acquired the land, we acquired 42 spaces," says Debi Faris. "We just prayed we would never see this in our lifetime. One, two, three children are too many."
Faris created the "Garden of Angels" four years ago for babies whose mothers threw them away like trash.
"There's a little boy that was about a week old that was found by a homeless man searching for food. He reached into the trashcan and found the body of Jordan," relates Faris. "There's a little boy they estimated was about two weeks old and he was put in a trashcan in Los Angeles. He was wearing a diaper and that little baby tried so hard to get out of the trash that he crawled out of his diaper. There's a little boy named David who was found in a sewage treatment plant. Sara was found in a white sheet just laying on the road. Vidalia was found in a dumpster behind a supermarket by a man looking for bottles."
Baby Shane was buried this summer after he was found wrapped in a garbage bag in the waters off Long Beach, Calif.
"Unlike Moses, Shane was placed in the water not for safety or rescue, but as a way out for those who were the caregivers of his life," said the pastor giving Shane’s eulogy.
Nationwide, there are no real statistics, but baby abandonment seems to be on the rise. According to one government count of news reports, in 1991, 65 babies were found abandoned in public places. In 1998, 105 babies were found. Faris believes the situation is much worse since there is no way to count the number of babies never found.
"I think our landfills are burial places, I really do, because if there are this many being found by accident, how many more are not?" she asks rhetorically.
Baby Jasmine was found crying for her life in a Disney World public restroom. A tourist heard her cries coming from a bathroom stall and opened the door. What she saw was unthinkable.
"The [umbilical] cord and afterbirth and all that were still attached and flushing down the toilet, making pressure on the baby," says Linda Keller, the tourist who found the abandoned baby.
Apparently, Jasmine's mother gave birth in the bathroom stall and then tried to flush the baby down an automatic toilet.
"Her little face was as blue as could be and her hands were blue, but when I opened the door, she was crying so I knew she was alive," explains Keller. "The Lord must have been guiding me to find her, because another five minutes and she probably wouldn't have made it."
In an attempt to save the nation's newborns, at least six states, including Texas, Alabama and Colorado, now have laws that make child abandonment legal. The controversial concept is also known as safe abandonment. Under the law, mothers can leave their babies, no questions asked, at a local fire station or hospital emergency room. In most cases, she is free to go with no fear of prosecution. At least 28 other states are considering similar laws.
Countries like Germany have taken this idea one step further. In Hamburg, mothers can anonymously drop their babies off in a drop box. The baby is placed on a soft, heated bed and sensors alert nearby nurses of the new arrival.
"Before any baby ends up in the rubbish, it is much better that it is dropped off with us," says Heidi Rosenfeld, a German social worker.
The laws are meant to save babies who are destined for abandonment -- like the baby boy found dead with his umbilical cord still attached in a Texas port-o-potty, or the one found in a Kentucky dumpster, or the one found face down in the mud in a Missouri alley.
But no matter how well meaning these laws are, critics argue that legalizing child abandonment sends the wrong message.
"It's just another way of disrespecting, de-valuing human life," says Cathy Brown, director of the pro-life group Why Life? "They're not looking at the real problem, and the problem is that life is not valued. To tell a 16-year-old that you can drop your baby off with no accountability, no responsibility, doesn't value, doesn't send a message that that teen is supposed to value human life."
Skeptics also fear the long-term implications. Debbe Magnusen runs a national baby rescue hotline called Project Cuddle.
"Say you have a child and it's not perfect or it's the wrong sex, you can just drop it off and have another one," notes Magnusen. "It may increase and people may use it as a form of birth control. Just drop it off."
But proponents like Faris say the laws could mean the difference between life and death for babies whose parents are determined to abandon them.
"When it boils down to it, is it better to have an alive child or a dead child?" quips Faris. "These children are human beings and valuable and we've got to stop just throwing them away like they are so expendable."
Brown agrees but says the problem of throwaway babies is not going away anytime soon.
"I believe we are going to continue to see things like this happen until we address the root problem, which is that there is a lack of respect for human life and the child in the womb has been completely devalued and is not seen as a person," she says. "Until we address that fact and bring that to the forefront, we are going to continue to see a rise in violent and barbaric acts like infanticide."
"Shane never likely knew the smell of talcum powder or baby oil, but today I want you to know and remember that he is blessed by the anointing of tears," pleaded the pastor at Baby Shane’s funeral.
Though Shane's mother may have abandoned him, a scripture on his gravestone serves as a reminder that God will not
: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. --- Jeremiah 1:5
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