By Chuck Plunkett
Denver Post Staff Writer

 

Denver should think twice about promoting "safe-haven" laws in trying to prevent the abandonment of babies, an adoption expert said Thursday at a meeting of The Denver Forum.

"I think as a social signal to tell girls it's OK to abandon your children - it's not a safe message," said Adam Pertman, a former Boston Globe reporter who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work in reporting on adoption issues.

Pertman's book "Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America," is highly regarded in the field. He serves as the executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute in New York.

Pertman discussed the "safe-haven" question before his appearance at the Oxford Hotel in Denver. His comments come in the wake of a string of abandoned babies in Denver. Three newborns were found dead or near dead within two weeks in late June and early July. The babies were left in a trash bin in an alley, a trash can in a bar restroom and a shed.

The incidents attracted extra attention because Colorado passed a law three years ago that allows women to turn over babies within 72 hours of birth to hospital or Fire Department officials without penalty.

The sponsor of the law, Rep. Gayle Berry, R-Grand Junction, says nine babies have been saved as a result.

Pertman counters that money spent advertising the availability of havens and the haven law should be spent to bolster the work of health care officials, schoolteachers and counselors and others to advocate personal responsibility and the promotion of safe adoptive measures.

Promoting havens, Pertman says, has the effect of further stigmatizing young women already in denial or depression over an unwanted pregnancy.

Reached by phone, Berry said the programs Pertman supports already exist, and yet the phenomenon of abandoned babies continues to occur.

She says the haven law provides a last chance. "It's important for them to know that they have other options," Berry said.

The issue is part of a broader societal problem concerning perceptions of adoption, Pertman said.

The secrecy surrounding adoption built a wall that has been slow in coming down, Pertman said. He said haven laws bolster old prejudices.

Staff writer Chuck Plunkett can be reached at cplunkett@denverpost.com or 303-820- 1333.