State to offer guidance about safe haven law

PORTLAND – The state Department of Health and Human Services plans to alert hundreds of medical services providers that their offices can serve as drop-off points for newborn babies abandoned under Maine’s Safe Haven law.

In 2002 Maine became one of the first of 47 states to enact a law allowing mothers to bring babies to designated locations such as hospitals, medical offices and police stations and leave them in the care of the state with no questions asked.

After talk show host Oprah Winfrey drew attention Friday to problems arising with such laws, a random survey by WGME-TV of dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, psychologists and chiropractors found that all were unaware of their legal requirements under the statute.

DHHS spokesman John Martins said the agency was providing guidance to those medical services providers about their responsibilities under the law.

The law has only been exercised twice during the four years it has been on the books, officials said, and in both cases the baby was dropped off at a hospital.