BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: URGENT! PERMANENT REPEAL OF LB 157–REJECT ALL ATTEMPTS TO AMEND!

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED RE: NEBRASKA SAFE HAVEN LAW

REPEAL IS THE ONLY SOLUTION TO LB 157.

Members of the Nebraska Legislature convened Monday, Nov. 14 for a Unicam special session to address Nebraska’s disastrous safe haven law, LB157. This law allows any person to abandon any child up to the age of 19 to a state- designated safe haven. Since its passage last summer, this law has turned the safe-haven concept on its head. 34 children have been abandoned to state designated safe havens since Sept. 1^st.

It is urgent that you contact the Unicam legislators at once because bills introduced on the opening day of the Unicam session, Nov. 14^th, will be eligible for final passage as early as this Friday, Nov. 21^st.

Bastard Nation calls for the immediate and PERMANENT repeal of LB 157. Furthermore, it calls for the defeat of LB 1, LB 3 and any other subsequent attempts by the Unicam to impose any baby dump/Baby Moses, safe haven bill on the people of Nebraska.

LB 1 and LB 3, two alternatives to LB157, were introduced on Nov. 14^th. LB1 would change the safe haven law to apply to infants 72 hours or younger. LB 3 would create a 2-tiered system of “legal abandonment”: one for infants up to one year of age; the other for children between the ages of 1 and 16. The second tier would also create regional and state “intervention teams” to assist families in abandonment crisis enabling them to access services and avoid abandoning their children if possible. There is no intervention team for infants and their moms.

Nebraska’s experience proves that abandonment is unacceptable at any age. The legislature must concentrate on saving Nebraska families rather than saving only the infants, who by the way, are in high demand in the adoption world.

BACKGROUND OF LB 157:

On July 8, 2008, Nebraska’s LB 157 baby dump bill went into effect. Unlike other so-called “safe haven” laws which limit “legal abandonment” of children anywhere from birth up to the age of 1-year, this 47-word, 2-sentence law authorizes the “legal abandonment” of any child up to the age of 19 by any person. From September 1 to today, 34 children have been abandoned by their parents or guardians. These include a family of 9 children (age 1-17) left by their father and four dumpees brought in from out of state. At least another dozen unsuccessful attempts have been reported. These include two-self dump attempts: an 18-year old male in Grand Island living in a storage unit with his grandmother after he was kicked out of his home by his mother’s boyfriend and a 16-year old high school honors student with her 10-month old baby. The young mom said her own mother physically abused her and stole her government assistance money.

The nightmare consequences of legal child abandonment have become a reality in Nebraska and have quickly spread its evil tentacles to other states. One woman rushed across the river from Iowa to dump her 14 year old daughter. A Georgia mother made speedy plans to drive to Nebraska to abandon her teen “before the Unicam had a chance to meet and change the bill.”

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Information links: http://cornkids.blogspot.com

CONTAC T INFORMATION