No one knows how many babies are tossed into dumpsters, left in gutters or dropped in rivers

January 23, 2000
Web posted at: 10:50 p.m. EST (0350 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- Lawmakers in California, Pennsylvania and Florida may follow their Texas counterparts and allow mothers to hand over newborn babies rather than abandon them in places such as dumpsters.

After 11 abandoned babies were found alive in Houston, Texas, during a nine-month period, state legislators passed a law to allow mothers who didn't want their babies to drop them off at emergency medical facilities, no questions asked.

Casey Brakeman, from San Bernardino, California, got pregnant and hid the fact from her mother, Linda. Casey gave birth to Ashley in a bathtub, then hid her, but eventually brought Ashley home.

"My daughter says her fear was I would throw her out," said Linda. "It isn't true, and I think the problem is the men who father these babies do not stand by the women."

Later, after Linda had won custody of Ashley, Casey got pregnant again and, for a second time, did not tell her mother.

Two days after the baby boy was born, Casey tossed him into a dumpster. He did not survive.

Some conservatives fear that a law legalizing abandonment of babies under 30 days old will only make matters worse.

Mark Washburn of the Capitol Resources Institute said churches and private groups are the answer, not legalized abandonment.

"It would encourage more people to abandon their babies. Every woman who's ever suffered from postpartum depression two weeks after she has given birth is going to have thoughts of 'Gosh, maybe I should give up my baby.' "

Linda Brakeman wonders if the law would work.

"I'm hoping the girls will take advantage of it, instead of doing as my daughter did and putting him in a dumpster," Brakeman said.

"Will they, though? If they're afraid of confronting a mother or a friend, will they go to a stranger and say, 'Here, take my child?' "

Proponents of the law say giving pregnant girls a choice may send unwanted babies to hospitals, rather than dumpsters.

Correspondent Don Knapp contributed to this report.

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