Hearing about a baby left on a doorstep is like something out of a work of fiction. For one family in Orlando, Florida, it became a reality on July 20, 2019. On that day, the mother of a young baby walked up to an apartment with her baby wrapped in a shirt.
A note was also pinned to the shirt and inside of one of the apartments, a mother and her son were eating breakfast. That is when they heard a baby crying outside.
They didn’t think much about it at first, imagining it was one of their neighbors. As the crying kept on taking place, however, the mother got up to take a look.
When the mother opened the door, she was shocked to see a newborn baby outside. That is when she saw the note that was left with the baby.
It said: “I had him in the bathroom. His dad tried to kill us. Please keep him secret and take him to hospital. Dad a very dangerous man. I’m so sorry, I tried to clean him and feed him as much as I” that is where the note ended.
The baby was taken to a hospital and is healthy but now had to be placed in care. An adoptive family is being sought out to help the child have a good life.
You may be interested in knowing that this isn’t the first time a baby has been dropped on a doorstep in recent years.
Back in 2017, at baby was abandoned outside of the same apartment complex, although nobody knows if the two issues are associated with each other.
It is not necessary for someone in Florida to give up a child this way. There is both a safe and legal way for a child to be given up within a week of birth. They can go to a fire station or hospital to drop off the child. Anywhere that has a sign that reads “A Safe Haven for Newborns” is an option.
When a parent gives up a child at one of these locations, the staff members will not require any information about the child or the parent. Texas was actually the first state to enlist the safe haven baby abandonment laws in 1999.
Although each of the 50 states, along with Washington DC and Puerto Rico have similar laws, there are some differences. Some of those differences include age limits. In 11 states and Puerto Rico, infants three days old or younger are accepted. In 19 states, the age limit is one month.
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