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Assignment: America’s Dropbox Babies

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America’s Dropbox Babies

03/11/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - Assignment, America’s Dropbox Babies

America’s Safe Haven laws for new-born babies – an alternative to abortion?

Are America’s Safe Haven laws for new-born babies a viable alternative to abortion? Assignment investigates in Arizona.

Until Roe vs Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in June, sweeping away Americans’ constitutional right to abortion, no one gave much thought to Safe Haven laws. These allow a mother to give up her new-born baby for adoption, at a designated site, anonymously and without risk of prosecution. Safe Haven legislation first appeared in the US in 1999 in Texas, in response to a rise in the number of abandoned babies.  Now it exists in every state.  These laws were never intended as an alternative to abortion. But as the options for unhappily pregnant women diminish, some are anticipating an increase in the number of babies left by desperate mothers in hospitals and specially designed Baby Boxes at local fire stations.  Ahead of the US midterm elections, and with the abortion debate still polarising the nation, Assignment reports from Arizona on America’s ‘dropbox babies’.

Reporter: Linda Pressly
Producer: Tim Mansel

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