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AUTHOR: Charles Colson
DATE: 12/31/01
ILLUSTRATION:
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.
_________________________
Copyright © 2002 Prison Fellowship Ministries.
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