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Attorney General's office tells committee baby-device law was meant as relinquishment
Summary
Deputy Director Gregory Austin told the Senate Public Health Committee that the original intent of the baby safety-device statute was that placing a baby in a drop device constitutes relinquishment and termination of parental rights; staff noted devices are anonymous and the bill aims to clarify existing law.
Gregory Austin, deputy director of the Attorney General's Office policy division, told the Senate Public Health Committee that the proposed changes to House Bill 1616 were clarifying provisions reflecting the original intent of the baby safety-device law. "Our understanding with the original intent of this law was that once a parent takes that step to drive to a device and put that baby in the device that they are terminating their parental rights to the child," Austin said.
Austin said existing statutes require signage and procedures at devices and that the bill would streamline differing standards currently applied when a baby is placed in a device. He and a practitioner from the Attorney General's children's justice division described practical considerations: devices are anonymous, reopening parental rights later would often require DNA or hospital records, and devices are stocked with a bright backpack and resources to reduce stigma and connect parents with services.
Austin said the office was not seeking to change law-enforcement missing-child processes but to clarify the legislature's prior intent about relinquishment when a child is placed in a baby safety device. Committee members asked further questions about how agencies check for missing children and whether fathers who are unaware of a birth could successfully assert rights after a child is left anonymously.
