Illinois is gearing up to teach all teenagers in public schools exactly how to go about safe-havening babies. A Curriculum Kit for teachers was written under the auspices of the Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services and the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation.
The goals of this curriculum kit are two-fold: 1) Students will know the resources to access and what they can do to help someone in danger of abandoning
an infant and 2) Students can think critically about larger issues including law, ethics and personal responsibility.
Law, ethics and personal responsibility? Are they kidding?
The Kit is 24 pages long. There is one paragraph, on the bottom of p. 11, which asks “ Is Safe Haven Law the Only Answer?” This parag
raph mentions traditional
adoption, open adoption and the possibility of a mother keeping her baby. Just one lonely paragraph for all these complex issues.
This teaching tool encourages students to use key excerpts from the IL Safe Haven Law as resources in designing student bulletin boards for classrooms and
corridors and daily announcements on student radio and TV stations. Two grotesque posters, one of a toilet and one of a garbage dumpster, are included with the kit, to get the ball rolling, I guess.
Teachers! Interdisciplinary opportunities abound. Some pretty nifty ways have been created to incorporate the safe haven law into other areas of the curriculum.
Critical Thinking: Set up a role-playing situation in which one student must persuade the other student of the benefits of the IL Safe Haven Law.
Fine Arts: Inspire students to create posters, art work, poems & music that depict themes & emotions related to the goals and success of the IL Safe Haven Law.
Life Skills: Encourage students to think about how safe haven laws may impact
a teen who gives up an infant under this law.
Math: Practice statistical skills by using national estimates about abandoned babies.
And.....I’ve saved the very best for last. This Curriculum Kit also comes fully equipped with a sheet of cut-out Wallet Sized Cards that students can carry with
them at all times. The card has the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation logo in the top left hand corner. It reads:
ILLINOIS SAFE HAVEN LAW
Illinois offers a safe, legal option to unsafe infant
abandonment. An unharmed newborn up to 7 days
old may be safely relinquished to staff at hospitals,
police & fire stations, or emergency care facilities,
no questions asked.
1-866-694-BABY
Tell a friend. Talk about it. You might save a life.
Don’t let your teen become a card-carrying member of the Save a Baby Foundation. Don’t let your state adopt such outrageous propaganda!
http://www.saveabandonedbabies.org/Kit.htmIN THE NEWS
MASSACHUSETTS: “For-Profits to Compete in child Placements” By: Patricia Wen
A new provision hidden in an unrelated bill has begun a change in adoption and foster care placements by now allowing for-profit companies to place children
for adoption in Massachusetts. The previous language provided for placement to be done only by government and non-profit agencies. This new provision was
approved by the House and Senate without a public hearing. Massachusetts Mentor , a for-profit firm bringing in $14.6 milli on dollars i
n revenues last year,
pushed this new change of law claiming that it has worked in the past for recruiting foster parents for children. Many child-welfare advocates and
non-profit agencies are upset with this new law claiming that it will spark “aggressive marketing and high adoption placement fees.”
The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/09/17/for_profits_to_compete_in_c
hild_placements/MICHIGAN House Passes Adoption Services Bill9/5/2006, The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Private adoption agencies could not be forced to participate in placements that violate their written religious or moral convictions under terms of a bill passed Tuesday by the state House.
The two-bill package passed by identical 6 9-37 v ot
es. The legislation now goes to the Senate.
The bills also would prevent state or local government agencies from denying a child placement agency grants or contracts because of the agency's religious convictions or policies.
www.examiner.com/a-26 5312
NORTH CAROLINA “Searchers for Family, Answers”
John Barbour, Staff Writer, Sunday, September 17, 2006, Eden News
Next year, the NCCAR will present legislation to the General Assembly that, if passed, will amend the state's adoption statute to allow adoptees to seek access
to their original birth certificate. The amendment also would allow birth parents or adult adoptees to file a "Contact Preference Form" with the Bureau of
Vital Statistics. The form would let birth parents and adoptees know whether the other asks to make contact.
htt p://search.eden dail y
n ews.com/Search.j spNATIONAL
TIME MAGAZINE: “A Mother's Choice” By Jeninne Lee-St.
Do laws that let women abandon their infants protect babies or encourage parents to desert them?
Sunday, Sep. 17, 2006
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1535837,00.htmlINTERNATIONAL
THE HAGUEOn September 13, 2006, the attached proposed rule (22 CFR Part 99) dealing with the reporting on non-Convention and Convention adoptions of emigrating children was published in the Federal Register in Vol. 71, Number 177, pages 54001 through 54005 and can be accessed at
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main. It is a joint proposal by the Department of
State and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
This proposed rule establishes a Case Registry for emigrating children and would impose reporting requirements on adoption service providers, including
government authorities who provide adoption services, in cases involving adoptions of children who will emigrate from the United States. The comment
period is 60 days and must be received by November 13, 2006. Comments may be sent to adoptionregs@state.gov and must include RIN number 1400-AC-20 in the subject line.
Grannie Annie’s History Trivia
----- The emergence of centralized record keeping began at the beginning of the 20th century to protect unplanned, unwanted, at-risk children from
“disappearing.” The United States Children’s Bureau was concerned about the high death rates of illegitimate children.
----- Abandoned children merited less state support than full orphans to discourage parents from giving the responsibility of child rearing to institutions.
----- Loretta Young became pregnant from an affair with Clark Gable. Fearing for her career, Ms. Young relinquished her baby to an orphanage, then pretended to adopt another child while actually adopting back her own biological child.
----- Quote
f rom The Adopted Child, by Eleanor Gallagher, 1936, chapter on “What to tell the child.” ”,,,we know nothing of your social background nor who your father and mother were, nor why you were not brought up by them but given to us for adoption. We do not know and you can never know.:”
----- Quote from a Child Welfare League Publication, 1939. “The Doctor is sometimes less worried about the survival of the unmarried patient’s baby. Contrast the feeling of relief throughout the hospital when an illegitimate child is stillborn with the sorrow manifested when a much desired baby is lost. As [the social worker] points out, ‘Our culture is actually hostile to the illegitimate child whom it sees ... as a burden and as a menace to the monogamous family.’:
[Sources: Growing in the Dark, by Janine M. Baer, c2004 and Wake up Little Susie by Rickie Solinger, c.1992.]
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