What do you all think of this?

A few states have laws designed to make abortion less attractive, in that parents can drop off newborns at the hospital, and know that they'll have at least a decent life (ie be provided for). The idea is to give soon to be parents in desperate situations another option, and hope some will choose it. But Nebraska took a bizarre approach.

California allows parents to surrender custody of their child within 72 hours of birth. Nebraska allows this to happen within 19 years.

As such, Nebraska has become a dumping ground for unwanted kids. As of November 20th (the law was enacted in July 18), 30 of the 34 children were abandoned because they had mental health problems the parents chose not to deal with. Many of the children being given up are teenagers, and sometimes in bulk. People are even coming in from other states to get rid of their children.

That is crazy!
We live in a world where we don't have to assume for our acts.
Within 19years! that's insane.
I guess it may be for the best for the kid but still - it just amaze me.

People taking advantage of this law - what does that tell us about "family values" in the "heart land"?

what does that tell us about "family values" in the "heart land"?

That those "family values" are pretty fscked up....
When I read of that law, I actually had to read the newspaper article 3 times to be sure I had really well understood it.

It's not the law that I cannot understand. Hell is paved of good intentions, they say, and I can see what the intention was at the first place.

But for someone to simply dump his/her kids, that I cannot imagine.
Even if the kid is hard to raise (and god knows if I'm preparing for the worst, seeing how a 5 years hold girl can have a strong opinion, and ways to express it), it's a huge difference between calling for help bailing out.

The people who invented the law maybe had the good idea to prevent the abortions and give new born a another chance.

The maybe one should promote condoms and other ways to prevent pregnancy and as a last resort to *use* to option to give away one's kids.

That's a tough situation...

They claim this was an oversite and did in fact modify the law sometime this week. It now only allows infants to be dropped off.

Having suffered the scourge of raising 3 teenagers I can understand. I would be far more tempted to dump one of those than a cute little baby.

Empty nester and loving it,

I think the way the law was originally written is better than the parents murdering the children --- at any age. I personally can't imagine just leaving my kids, even at the worst moments.