Safe Haven is an option for young parents - not prepared to raise a child - to drop it off at a safe location.
/ File
TOLEDO -- The Lucas County Prosecutor's office wants to remind young parents about a program allowing them to give up their newborns - no questions asked.
Safe Haven is an option provided to young parents - not prepared to raise a child - to drop the child off at a safe location.
Under the law, parents can take a newborn baby to a medical professional at a hospital, officials at a police station, or staff at a fire station in the first 30 days of the babies birth. The only requirements is the infant cannot be abused.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates said it's the responsibility of her office to make sure there are no more Kenisha Pruitt's. The young mother pleaded guilty Friday to killing her newborn son and placing him in a freezer.
"Isn't there another solution?" said Bates. "Isnt' there another solution to say instead of putting a baby in a freezer, to say here officer, here fire person, doctor, nurse here take this baby and somebody out there in this world, raise that baby and life can be good."
After a baby has been dropped off at a safe location, a medical professional will look over the infant to make sure they're ok and then afterwards the baby will be adopted.
There's also a hotline parents can call: (419) - 265 - BABY(2229)
In addition to getting information about how safe haven works, parents who want to raise their child, but don't know how, will be directed to resources to help them.
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