Safe haven law to cover only infants
Stung by the abandonments of children as old as 17 under Nebraska’s brand-new safe-haven law, the governor and lawmakers agreed Monday to narrow the law’s broad wording to protect only the parents of newborns from prosecution.
Forty of the Legislature’s 49 senators have agreed to amend the law so it applies only to infants up to 3 days old, legislative Speaker Mike Flood said at a news conference.
The age cap would change the Nebraska law from the most lenient to one of the nation’s most restrictive.
At least 18 children, the youngest 22 months and many of them teens, have been abandoned since the law took effect in July. Last month, an out-of-work widower left nine of his 10 children, ages 1 to 17.
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