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BreakPoint
with Charles Colson
Commentary #011231 - 12/31/2001
America's Abandoned Babies: Whatever happened to the preciousness of
new life?
One cold December night, Jamie, 19, the frightened
and unmarried mother of a two-year-old son, gave
birth to a baby boy on her trailer home floor. Out of
fear, she had kept her pregnancy hidden from her
parents. She would have gone to a hospital, she said,
but she had no money and no insurance. Jamie's
boyfriend asked a hospital emergency room nurse where
they could leave a baby awaiting adoption. "We do not
handle that," the nurse said. Before midnight, Jamie
bundled up the baby and left the trailer. She
returned empty-handed. Police later found the
newborn, alive, in a cardboard box. He had been
abandoned in the dark empty hallway of a nearby
apartment complex.
Jamie's baby is just one of America's newborns
routinely found abandoned in trash bins, junk cars,
and dark alleyways. Recently, ten abandoned infants
were found dead in New York City. Minnesota officials
discovered a dead newborn in a bathroom stall. Four
abandoned babies, three of them dead, were found in
Louisiana.
Spurred by the discovery of thirteen abandoned babies
in ten months in Houston, in September 1999 Texas
passed the nation's first Safe Haven Law. After the
death of an abandoned newborn in a hospital parking
lot, Indiana also passed the Safe Haven law. In the
past two years, thirty-five other states have adopted
Safe Haven Laws. These laws allow mothers to
anonymously leave a newborn at hospitals, firehouses,
and other designated facilities without fear of
prosecution.
But even with widespread promotion, they are having
little effect. When New Jersey spent $500,000 to
promote newborn Safe Havens, six babies were left at
Safe Havens, but two others were left at a doorstep
and old car. Florida distributed decals at firehouses
proclaiming: "A Safe Baby Station: Leave a Baby in
Safety." Yet, Florida firefighters recently counted
eleven illegal abandonments, with four of the babies
dead.
The problem of abandoned babies goes far deeper than
lack of finances, fear of family, or criminal
prosecution. It's a reflection, I believe, of our
callous disregard of the sanctity of human life. The
abortion lobby and the pro-choice people wouldn't
sanction leaving abandoned babies in dark alleys, but
in helping undercut respect for life, that's exactly
the horror they've helped create.
The truth is, all life is precious in God's sight.
The Psalmist David writes: "For you [God] created my
inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's
womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made . . . All the days ordained for me
were written in your book before one of them came to
be." (Ps. 139:13, 14, 16 NIV)
A baby -- born and unborn -- is precious to God. It
is not a disposable commodity. A child's life should
not be subject to our finances, our fears, and our
convenience. We somehow have lost the sense of
sacredness that a new life embodies. We are throwing
away precious human life -- our future generations.
And until we regain our respect and reverence for
valuable human life -- until we realize that our
babies belong to God, not to us -- we will no doubt
continue to find America's newborns crying in
cardboard boxes and abandoned in dark empty hallways.
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