Special Report USA Report December 23, 2008
By Lyn Coolon
LEGISLATURE OF NEBRASKA
ONE HUNDREDTH LEGISLATURE
SECOND SESSION
LEGISLATIVE BILL 157
A BILL
FOR AN ACT relating to children; to prohibit prosecution for leaving a child at a hospital; and to provide a duty for the hospital.
Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska
Section 1. No person shall be prosecuted for any crime based solely upon the act of leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty at a hospital licensed by the State of Nebraska.
The hospital shall promptly contact appropriate authorities to take custody of the child.
With the passing of this bill—LB 157, Nebraska became the last state in the union to pass a safe haven law for infants. However the Nebraska legislators took it a step too far—they wrote their law to include all minors. A minor in Nebraska is any person under the age of 19. And it doesn’t have to be a parent that leaves a child; it could be a guardian, a grandparent or even a babysitter if you failed to pick your child up from daycare in a timely manner. The bill passed in the end of July of this year and safe havens became available on August 22.
Hospitals put up signs, billboards were erected and the legislators patted one another on the back. Sen. Bob Black proclaimed in July: “All children deserve our protection. If we save one child from being abused, it’s well worth it.”
The legislature adjourned and won’t reconvene until Jan., 2009. The Governor has called for a special session, but the majority of the legislators aren’t available.
By the middle of September, 17 children had been abandoned at Omaha hospitals. Half of the abandoned children were teenagers and none were infants. None were in any danger, abused or neglected. . Nine were from one family as a recently widowed father became overwhelmed with coping without his wife. This story made national headlines and the worst case scenario of the laws of unintended consequences commenced. By the first of December, 393,471 minors had been left at hospitals throughout the state. The vast majority were over the age of 12.
Hospitals have set up heated tents to hold the disabled and unaccompanied children who are dropped off. Long lines of parents with children in tow form daily with many either camping out or returning the next day. Those that get impatient from the long wait simply pin a note to the front of children’s pockets and leave them in line alone. Severely disabled children are being dropped off at the emergency room entrance, their medical records in the wheelchair pockets. Hospital employees are overwhelmed and many volunteers have been brought in from neighboring states. Retired nurses and doctors have been recruited to do triage in the tents. Public and private schools were shut down before Thanksgiving break and have not reopened. Instead, they are all being used for shelter for the abandoned children. A large number are being housed in community centers and gymnasiums throughout the state. Local psychologists are holding group therapy sessions in the schools as most of the children are suffering from abandonment issues. Taser use by the police has become a daily practice as tempers flare in the long lines.
Matt Slaver, the founder of the ultra-conservative Freedom Council had this to say about the situation. “I believe we are seeing the cheapening of family and family values. If you don’t like your child, you can just abandon it at any hospital and there is no consequence. We need to recapture a culture of life—life from the moment of conception until the last natural breath. We need to strengthen families…Children are not garbage—you can’t just throw them away.”
With the threat of the legislature rewording the bill in January, December, thus far, has sent the number of abandoned children skyrocketing. The most accurate count according to the Governor is now over a million children. At a recent press conference he said: “I will hunt you down and find you. You will pay child support. The next administration will find you. There is no free lunch in Nebraska.”
Some of the children are from the bordering states and at least one is from Canada. There are not enough schools, teachers or resources to serve the new children and the state may have to declare bankruptcy to get the federal aid they need. The Governor is optimistic that school can resume next fall but has made an appeal to parents to homeschool whenever possible so they can progress up a grade level when schools reopen.
The following comments were from people standing in the lines at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha on December 20th.
“We had no where else to go. He’s threatened to kill us, but the police say he has to actually do us some harm first. I am scared to death of him.”
“My husband left me with 4 teen-age kids and no support– no alimony. He went out for cigarettes last year and never came back. I can’t support them myself and nobody will help me.”
“We’ve gone through all our savings and have taken out loans to cover her needs, but she’s mentally ill and isn’t getting any better. We can’t afford to put her into a treatment center anymore and she keeps spitting out the meds that keep her calm. So we can’t control her anymore.”
“I love her but she’s completely out of control. She’s pregnant with her third baby and she’s not even 16 yet.”
“I lost my health insurance when the factory shut down and can’t find another job. They’ll be better off here.”
“I ain’t gonna take his sass no more. They can try to shut him up. Good luck ‘em.”
“We drove all night to get here from Milwaukee. Nobody will help us with him. He keeps getting arrested. We got sued for the vandalism to the school and it took every bit of our savings. We’ve got 3 other kids to support and they’re good kids. Last week I found a loaded gun in his room and that was the last straw.”
“It ain’t no one’s business, but mine. Now it’s Nebraska’s problem.”
“She’s been disabled since birth and we’ve had to fight for every wheel chair, every IV tube and every hospitalization. She’s now so heavy, we can’t lift her into bed and no one will help us. We’re desperate. This is our last hope for decent care for her. ”
“He’s a freaking homosexual. It ain’t natural—the Pope says he’s a sinner. He won’t go to church with us anymore and he won’t stop going off with out his homo friends. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.”
“My wife and I were going to get a divorce, but when we started talking about our problems, we realized that it was always about the kids. We’re only trying to save our marriage. Don’t we deserve some happiness?”
“He’s just a bad kid. Period.”
“Her dad won’t take her off my hands and I got a good job offer in Vegas but they don’t know I got a kid and they don’t allow them at the ranch. Did you know it was legal to hook in Vegas? I sure didn’t until my friend CeeCee told me. I think I’m good looking enough to get a lot of business. What do you think?”
“The Church tells us we can’t use birth control, so we’ve got a bunch of kids, but then they didn’t want to help us when things got bad and things are real bad right now.”
“I’ve had enough. That’s all, I just had it. Get out of my way.”
“She was such a sweet little girl, I could dress her up and she looked so sweet, but now she’s not what I was expecting at all.”
“Their mom ran off with some man and left them for us to raise. I’m old—I already raised my kids and I don’t want to be raising no grandkids too. I can barely afford my pills so how am I gonna pay for all the stuff these kids need? I can’t even pick up the baby no more as my back is too bad.”
“They won’t listen to me anymore. I can’t keep track of ‘em, they’re always running off. They just laugh at me when I yell at ‘em.”
“I just can’t do this any more.”
“Billy here was just born bad. His mom was bad and his grandpa was bad too. Whole damn family was no good.”
“I got pregnant at 15 and my parents locked me up in my room until it was too late to get an abortion. I tried to get it adopted but as you see, it’s deformed—no one wants it. I sure don’t. I didn’t give my real name—I don’t want Mom coming down here trying to get it back. Said it was God’s punishment on me for sinning with Todd. Now, I’m free, I’m gonna go down to Kansas City and stay with friends.”
“She spends all day banging her head against the floor—that’s it, nothing else. She screams all the time and won’t let us touch her. What can we do for her—nothing! The school can’t do nothing for her either.”
“Shelly’s bulimic and we can’t afford to put her into the hospital again. But she’s going to die without treatment. The bank won’t give us any more credit on the house and our insurance doesn’t cover it. What else can we do?”
“Shawn started killing little animals when he was 5, now he’s killing the neighbors’ pets. I’m not going to wait until he kills somebody else’s kid. They need to put him somewhere and keep everyone safe.”
“I found my new husband in bed with her. She’s always been a little flirt. I had trouble keeping boyfriends; they always started messing with her instead. I swear I don’t know where a 12 year old learns this kind of behavior—probably at school. God knows, I always treated her good. Maybe she’ll find her own boyfriend in the camp you got going here and he can take care of her.”
“He needs a heart transplant. We can’t get enough money together in time to save him. We’re hoping that he gets put on a list right away as a ward of the state. I love him enough to give him his only chance to survive.”
Reasons are varied for the massive abandonment. There are many who can’t financially support their children. Some just have reached the end of the rope after dealing with the medical and legal bureaucracies. Lost jobs, lost health insurance, insufficient public resources and few support agencies have resulted in parents giving up the rights to their children. There is still another two weeks before the law can be reconsidered. How many more will come?
Nebraska has always ranked near the bottom for child care assistance and health care coverage for working families. It is also the lowest in state spending for mental health care. Now the system is falling apart under the financial and emotional burden of the additional one million damaged children that have flooded into the state.
Laurie Morgan of the Voice for American Children sees it as retribution for the years of short-sighted church and government policies, under funded programs and emphasis on the pre-born instead of the living children of Nebraska.
“There is always a tipping point in any crisis. By ignoring the building crisis, Nebraska is reaping its just deserts. Pay now or pay latter. Nebraska waited too long and they are paying big-time now.”
Discuss this article: