Drafter
Clerk 05/19/2016
Title
A MOTION calling on the executive to support efforts to increase the safety of infants and prevent child abandonment in King County.
Body
WHEREAS, Washington state's safe haven law, RCW 13.34.360, allows a parent within seventy-two hours of a child's birth to transfer his or her newborn to a qualified person at a hospital, fire station or federally designated rural health clinic and do so anonymously without fear of criminal prosecution for abandoning, or failing to support, the newborn, and
WHEREAS, the safe haven law has been in effect in Washington state since 2002, and
WHEREAS, Motion 14104 requested that the executive convene a safety of newborn children task force for King County by April 2014 to provide a report with recommendations to the King County council and executive, including recommendations on how King County can engage in an ongoing, regionally consistent public information campaign to educate service providers and the public about safe surrender of newborns, and
WHEREAS, both the task force's report and a minority report submitted by Safe Place for Newborns of Washington, recommended increasing public awareness, and
WHEREAS, the task force identified a range of locations where posting, distributing or otherwise disseminating materials or information that would educate would-be parents and the general public about the safe haven law might raise awareness of the law and lead to safeguarding newborns, and
WHEREAS, the locations recommended for consideration included locations where pregnant women or individuals of child-bearing age might be present, and
WHEREAS, the locations recommended for consideration included locations where providers serve pregnant women or individuals of child-bearing age, and
WHEREAS, the methods and locations recommended for communicating information about the safe haven law were far-reaching and presumed a general public unfamiliarity with the provisions of the safe haven law, and...

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