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Hey, Nebraskans, Being a Parent is Evidently Reversible!
By Marc | September 22, 2008
No, I’m not talking about abortion. I’m referring to the recent Nebraska safe haven law (LB157), which states:
“No person shall be prosecuted for any crime based solely upon the act of leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty at a hospital licensed by the State of Nebraska. The hospital shall promptly contact appropriate authorities to take custody of the child.”
Notice there is no age restriction on the child?
This week, 3 minors have been dropped off at hospitals to become wards of the state by their parents or guardians. This doesn’t seem that strange, considering you’re talking about the potential safety of a child. But these kids were 11, 13, and 15. None of them were in any immediate danger.
Until July, Nebraska was one of the only states not to have some sort of safe haven law to protect children from abusive parents. Most states have them primarily to prevent newborns from being abandoned in dumpsters by desperate mothers. But, instead of following the examples of the other states, we just decided we’d be wishy-washy about it and not have any sort of age restrictions.
As a Nebraskan, I’m quite embarrassed by our lawmakers.
So, what’s happened? We’ve let the monsters out. We’ve told people it’s okay to neglect their responsibilities. If I were to say, “I don’t feel like being a parent anymore”, I could legally do that in this state and suffer no repercussions, except maybe a bit of guilt and making the children, who are (by all that is decent and right) my responsibility, more of a burden on our society.
And this really makes me laugh: State Senator Ernie Chambers, a man who is one of the most public man in Nebraska politics and has just as many people who love him as downright despise him, a man who attempted to take God to court, has opposed the law from the beginning, and has even filibustered it.
The bill does not deal with the underlying causes of child abandonment, he said.
“What is it in a society that will make a young woman feel so desperate that she can not hold on to what may be the most important thing in her life?” he said. “Those she should be able to turn to for sustenance and nurturing may be the ones who come down on her the hardest.”
Young women should be made to know that a baby is for life, he said. Society has the obligation to address these issues in such as way that she does not think automatically that the way out of a difficult situation is to throw her hands up and abandon her child, he said.
Those who say they are opposed to abortion have never done anything to address the underlying causes, he said.
Although I don’t agree with him on most of his views, on some aspects, I can agree with Mr. Chambers, especially on his placing his importance on motherhood. More should be done to find out why abandonment happens.
I believe that parenthood is a privilege. In this world there are couples who are unable to have their own children. There are also those who become foster parents in order to nurture children in need. Many even adopt even though they have children of their own or are able to conceive. Loving a child is one of the greatest rewards this world has to offer. Some people just don’t get it.
If a child is “unmanageable”, evidently the people responsible no longer have to be responsible. It makes me sick.
I understand sometimes things get frustrating. I understand sometimes your kids drive you to wit’s end. There are alternatives to dumping them off to be “someone else’s problem”. Being unable to handle their behavior is no excuse.
In closing, I have a question: Later on in the lives of those children, what are their outlooks on responsibilities, relationships, parenting, and life going to be?
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