Yesterday, WMUR News 9, our local ABC affiliate and the only network channel in the state of New Hampshire, did a follow-up story on the body of a dead infant found in a pond in Manchester. The focus was the state’s haven law, which is meant to prevent abandonment, but it got a few facts wrong.
The Safe Haven Law allows any parent from any state to surrender their child up to seven days after birth. The baby can be brought to any 24-hour first responder station or hospital in the state.
This is incorrect. According to Cornerstone Associate Director and Head of Litigation, Ian Hyuett, the correct answer is 61 days. That’s a huge discrepancy. Two months compared to one week. Plenty of time for a stressed-out (or parents) who can’t find that path to parenthood to drop an infant off at a safe haven location instead of opting to abandon it “in the wild.”
Huyett also informed us that,
WMUR has falsely implied, including on TV today, that parents might be criminally prosecuted “if there are signs of abuse.” Actually, the legislature enacted an “exclusionary rule” explicitly to stop that from happening. If babies have been injured, malnourished, or otherwise harmed, then parents should be especially encouraged to bring those babies forward.
Ian adds that WMUR also neglected to report that churches are Safe Haven locations, with several posting signs that they will not report parents to authorities.
At-risk parents who are more likely to get their news from the Granite State’s only broadcast television station are being misinformed (or is it disinformed) about their options, and as of this morning, the print version of the story has yet to be corrected.
Ian emailed these corrections to the station yesterday evening.
