BILL ANALYSIS
SB 116
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 14, 2005
Counsel: Steven Meinrath
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Mark Leno, Chair
SB 116 (Dutton) - As Amended: March 30, 2005
SUMMARY : Deletes the sunset date of January 1, 2006 for the
"safely surrendered baby (SSB) law" under which a parent or
other person with lawful custody of a baby 72 hours old or
younger who surrenders the baby to a county-designated safe
surrender site may not be prosecuted for child abandonment.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Makes it a crime for a parent of or other person entrusted
with a child younger than 14 years of age to abandon the child
(Penal Code Section 271) and to fail to provide for the child
or to present the child to an orphanage or similar institution
as an orphan. (Penal Code Section 271a.)
2)Makes it a crime for a parent willfully to fail, without
lawful excuse, to provide a child with necessary food,
clothing, shelter, medical assistance or other remedial care.
(Penal Code Section 270.)
3)Delineates the procedure for the surrender of a child 72 hours
or younger to a "safe surrender site" without incurring any
criminal liability under the state's child abandonment laws.
(Health and Safety Code Section 1255.7.) This statute sunsets
on January 1, 2006.
4)Protects from prosecution under the State's child abandonment
laws a parent or other person having lawful custody of a child
72 hours old or younger, who voluntarily surrenders physical
custody of the child to personnel on duty at a safe surrender
site. (Penal Code Section 271.5.) This statute sunsets on
January 1, 2006.
5)Describes the children who are within the jurisdiction of the
juvenile court and may be adjudged dependents of the court,
including minor children who are surrendered under the
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provisions of the safe surrender of newborns law and who have
not been reclaimed within the specified 14-day period.
(Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300.) This statute
sunsets on January 1, 2006 and will be reenacted without the
provision for safely surrendered newborns.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement : According to the author, "Persons are
abandoning and or discarding newborn infants, resulting in
the death of the infants. Yet, in some cases, as result of SB
1368 (Brulte), Chapter 824, Statutes of 2000, persons are now
safely surrendering newborns. SB 1368 sunsets January 1,
2006. Existing law states that 'no parent or other person who
has lawful custody of a minor child 72 hours old or younger
may be prosecuted for child abandonment if he or she
voluntarily surrenders physical custody of the child to a
designated employee at a public or private hospital emergency
room or other location designated by the county board of
supervisors or other custodial person to safely surrender a
newborn infant within 72 hours of birth.' The person who
surrenders the infant has up to 14 calendar days to reclaim
custody of the child. [SB 1368 (Brulte), Chapter 824,
Statutes of 2000; Penal Code 271.5; Welfare and Institutions
Code Sections 300,309,361.5 and 14005.24; and Health and
Safety Code Section 1255.7.] This bill will delete the sunset
provision thus making permanent the Safe Arms for Newborns
Law."
2)Background : SB 1368 (Brulte), Chapter 824, Statutes of 2000,
enacted the provisions governing the surrender of a newborn by
a parent or other responsible person to a safe surrender site
where the abandoned newborn may receive medical and other care
until the county takes over custody of the newborn. SB 1368
was introduced to provide mothers of unwanted newborns a safe
alternative to abandonment of the child in trash bins, alleys,
or other places where the babies would be unprotected and
could die. In order to reduce the number of abandoned babies
and give the babies a chance to survive, SB 1368 provided a
safe place (such as an emergency room of a hospital) where a
person may surrender the baby, may retrieve the baby within a
specified period if there is a change of heart, and immunity
from criminal penalties under the child abandonment laws to
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the parent and/or person who delivered the baby to the safe
surrender site. SB 1368 contained a sunset date of January 1,
2006.
Since the implementation of the SSB law, two additional statutes
have been enacted to enhance the effectiveness of the SSB law:
(a) AB 2817 (Maddox), Chapter 1099, Statutes 2002, which
requires school districts to include information about the law
in sex education classes; and, additionally, (b) SB 139
(Brulte), Chapter 150, Statutes 2003, provides that a child
may now be surrendered at any hospital or other designated
safe surrender site. Previously, a designated employee at a
hospital emergency room or other location was the only person
permitted to accept a baby. In addition, SB 139 provides for
confidentiality of personal identifying information of the
person surrendering the baby and requires all safe surrender
sites to post a sign incorporating the Statewide SSB logo.
3)Effect of This Bill : This bill has been amended to more
precisely define "parent" as a birth parent of a minor child
who is 72 hours old or younger. The purpose of the amendment
was to clarify that a person surrendering a child under these
provisions must be the natural parent of the child or a person
with legal custody of the child. This bill would make no
other changes to existing law relating to the safe surrender
of newborn babies except for the deletion of the sunset
clauses in relevant statutes enacted in 2000. Thus, under
existing law and under this bill:
a) A parent or other person with lawful custody of a
newborn may, without fear of prosecution for child
abandonment, surrender a baby 72 hours old or younger to a
county-designated "safe-surrender site."
b) If a parent or other individual having lawful custody of
the child voluntarily surrenders physical custody of the
child to personnel who are on duty at the safe-surrender
site, any personnel at the safe surrender site shall accept
the baby so surrendered and perform several tasks related
to identifying the child confidentially and provide the
parent or other person with a copy of the identifying
information for purposes of reclaiming the baby later, if
desired; obtaining as much medical information about the
baby as possible; providing medical screening and medical
care to the baby; and notifying the county child welfare
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services agency within 48 hours of the fact that the safe
surrender site has received the baby.
c) The county child welfare services agency assumes
temporary custody of the newborn upon being notified,
immediately conducts an investigation, and within no more
than 24 hours reports all known identifying information
concerning the child (except personal identifying
information pertaining to the parent or person who
surrendered the baby) to the California Missing Children
Clearinghouse and to the National Crime Information Center.
If the child is not reclaimed by the parent or guardian
who abandoned the newborn, the child protective services
agency takes custody of the child and files a petition in
juvenile court to have the child declared a dependent of
the court.
d) The parent or other person who safely surrendered the
newborn may reclaim the baby within 14 days of the date of
surrender under specified conditions. If the newborn is
still at the safe surrender site, the site may return the
newborn to the parent or person claiming the baby or
contact a child protective agency if there is a reasonable
suspicion that the newborn has been the victim of child
abuse or neglect.
e) The safe surrender site or its personnel at the safe
surrender site are immune from civil, criminal or
administrative liability for accepting the newborn if they
acted under a good-faith belief that accepting the newborn
was authorized by the SSB law.
f) Persons who "assist " the parent or person surrendering
the newborn for the purpose of effecting the safe
surrender, without compensation, and in good faith, are not
civilly liable for injury to or death of the newborn as a
result of any act or omission except to those acts or
omissions constituting gross negligence, recklessness, or
willful misconduct.
g) Personally identifying information pertaining to the
parent or other person surrendering the child obtained from
the questionnaire provided at the safe surrender site are
confidential and protected from disclosure under the
Public Records Act.
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This bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and
on the Senate Floor without a single "no" vote.
4)2005 Report to the Legislature on the SSB Law : SB 1368
requires the California Department of Social Services (CDSS)
to report annually to the Legislature on the effectiveness of
the SSB Law. The report submitted to the Legislature by CDSS
dated January 2005 states, "Accurate reporting of the number
of abandoned babies found alive and deceased continues to pose
a challenge as the requisite information depends solely on the
cross reporting between law enforcement agencies and child
welfare services. At the time of CDSS' initial report to the
Legislature in 2003, which covered the period January 1, 2001
through October 21, 2002, there were 12 safely surrendered
babies confirmed. During the current two-year reporting
period of October 22, 2002 through September 30, 2004, an
additional 52 newborns have been reported as receiving
safe-haven protection, bringing the total number of safely
surrendered babies to 64, under the provisions of the SSB law.
Interestingly, SSB data indicates the age of the surrendering
parents or lawful guardians ranges from 15 to 42 years old,
despite the popular belief before implementation that mothers
in their early teens would be most likely to take advantage of
the law." (SSB Report to the Legislature January 2005, CDSS.)
5)Arguments in Support :
a) The County of Los Angeles states, "Los Angeles has been
at the forefront of implementing the Safe Surrender Law,
with 29 babies safely surrendered since its enactment in
2002. The year 2004 marked the first year since the
measure's passage that more babies were surrendered in Los
Angeles County than were abandoned. This lifesaving
program deserves to continue."
b) The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
District IX, states, " The American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists, District IX, (ACOG-IX)
representing more than 4,600 California obstetricians and
gynecologists dedicated to promoting the health of
California's women, applauds your efforts to continue the
laudable efforts by your predecessors to protect newborns
whose mothers, in desperate circumstances, may otherwise
perilously abandon their child. ACOG-IX supported previous
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bills establishing and refining the safe surrender program.
A removal of the sunset date is appropriate considering
the success of the program."
6)Arguments in Opposition:
a) Bastard Nation states, "Safe havens dehumanize and
socially obliterate the very children they purport to help,
making the abandoned infant little more than an ahistorical
commodity to be chopped up into indiscernible parts and
repacked like a can of Spam. Mothers, children and the
consequences of simple-minded bad social policy cloaked in
consumer language are swept under the rug - the detritus of
social experimentation affording no solution other than
state-sanctioned anonymous child abandonment that
encourages family crisis and dysfunction and creates
undocumented babies.
"Relinquishment and adoption are life-changing and life-long
events for both parent and child and should be done with
the utmost care and concern, not at the prompting of a Safe
Haven poster in a high school bathroom or a commercial on
the radio. The babies and the future people they will grow
into as well as their parents deserve better. They deserve
the same right to identity, care, protection and family as
the rest of us. Legislators should ask themselves if they
would want their daughters, granddaughters, wives or
friends to use it?
"Don't we owe our children more than Safe Havens? Isn't
there a better way?"
b) Concerned United Birthparents, Inc. , state, "The 'Safe
Surrender' law permits a parent to unilaterally relinquish
a child without concern for the rights of the other parent.
Instead, one parent's action leads to termination of both
parents' rights. No notice is given to the child's other
parent, usually the father. Safe Surrender operates under
the broad and illogical presumption that the other parent
(father) and other relative caregivers are unfit to care
for the child."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, District IX
California Catholic Conference
California Church IMPACT
California Medical Association
California Peace Officers Association
California State PTA
City of Los Angeles
City of Milpitas
City of Yucaipa
Consulate General of Mexico
County of Los Angeles
County Welfare Directors Association
Family Law Section, State Bar of California
Gary C. Ovitt, San Bernardino County Supervisor
Hospital Council, Santa Clara Section
James T. Beall, Jr., Santa Clara County Supervisor
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Peace Officers Research Association of California
San Bernardino County
San Bernardino County Sheriff
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara County Child Abuse Council
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Santa Clara County Kids Network
Santa Clara County Social Services Agency
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
Opposition
Bay Area Birthmothers Association
Bastard Nation
California Open
Concerned United Birthparents
Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
Families Adopting in Response
Analysis Prepared by : Steven Meinrath / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744