This blog post will take a look at Article 2 of S.F. 1675. This article addresses the expansion of Safe Place for Newborns.
Give Life a Chance; Safe Place for Newborns, Duties; Immunity

  • Safe Place language has been expanded to include not only hospitals but health care providers who provide urgent care medical services and ambulance services dispatched in response to a 911 call from the mother or person with the mother’s permission to relinquish a newborn infant.
  • The Safe Place can receive infants only during their hours of operation.
  • The Safe Place must NOT notify the responsible social service agency in the presence of the mother/ person leaving the newborn and must provide the necessary care to the child.
  • The time frame to relinquish the newborn infant has been expanded from 3 days to 7 days.
  • The social service agency that was contacted by the Safe Place has legal responsibility to place the infant in foster care for 72 hours while they file a petition with the court, under 260C.141, asking for continued placement of the child. The social service agency shall immediately look for an adoptive placement.

Do you have a responsibility in making the expansion of this act known to the people you work with? Do you feel that anything is missing from this act?