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I just read about Nebraska getting ready to shut down their safe-haven law for abandoning children who are more than about one week old.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
Instead of getting an occasional newborn, as anticipated, they have taken in about 3 adolescents per week, some from more than 1,000 miles away. And these have mostly been children with severe behavior problems.
The Nebraska legislature doesn’t think its fair that parents from other states are dumping problem children in their hospitals.
Legislators don’t even think that Nebraskans ought to be able to abandon special needs kids so easily.
They are concerned about the financial burdens this puts on their state.
.
.
I cried all the way through this article.
For me especially, this is a hard choice. Totally opposed to any abortion, I demand that, once conceived, they be brought to term, born, and raised. I also don’t like the government taking over what should be an individual responsibility.
But overriding everything else is the simple fact that these are children who understand that they are being abandoned by their parents.
That overwhelms me.
Once a person is 18 or 21 years old, they can tough it out, pretty much, no matter what tragedy comes their way, I say. Grow up. Be a man. Whatever.
But a 12-year-old cannot realistically be expected to cope with that.
So, one of my first reactions was to wonder if the State of Colorado could take the mantle of leadership here, and change our safe-haven law to take these unwanted children in.
…
I don’t think that the USA qualifies as a “great civilization” if we treat children so badly.
But it is a monumental undertaking to open the doors wide open to letting kids from across the country be dumped here. The foster care system in Colorado is already stretched.
So, I ‘m thinking about what I personally can do, but I’m also wondering if there’s a willingness on the part of the State to take on this burden at this difficult time.
Can we take this on as a State ? Should we ?
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Thankfully, Colorado already has a Safe Haven Law in place (I’d have to check statute to make sure that’s up-to-date).
I believe our state has a responsibility to act as a safety net for those most in need and abandoned children are the top of the list for me, for as you hinted at, they cannot care for themselves.
One solution might be youth parent counseling. I could be wrong, but aren’t most abandoned children the result of young single mothers? Couldn’t we expand or enhance classes with an emphasis on economics for young parents? While that will come as an expense to our state, I would think it save taxpayer money by keeping kids off the streets, away from drugs, crime, etc.
Big Brothers Big Sisters Across America. I only know a handful of individuals who are Big Brothers Big Sisters, but talk about a great influence for our youth.
Parents of children with behavioral disorders need help.
This isn’t just humanitarian–its economic. If we don’t help these kids and their parents they are going to fill our prisons, having caused a lot of pain along the way.
I would be interested to know how it turns out for them.
FYI, ^^thats^^ a giant, glaring contradiction.
There is never enough money to address all of the serious problems we face. And yes, TABOR means we address even less in this state, but there is never enough money no matter what level of taxation there is.
As to what to do in this case – no idea.
…after being turned over to foster parents or an orphanage with cold gruel.
is that Nebraska, like most states, including CO, have really eliminated any safety net. We did it with TABOR. We do it when we fail to pass miniscule sales tax increases to fund care for some of our most needful, we do it when we cut medicaid coverage for mental health care and when we allow private carriers to eliminate that coverage. That is why teens and preadolescents were dropped off under NE safe haven and why they would be dropped off in other states if those safe haven laws allowed it. We do it almost every time the argument is “get folks off welfare”, “we can’t be a nanny state”.
These kids, those denied this kind of care, even if they are not abandoned, are going to be less than self sufficient for the rest of their lives and therefore a burden to taxpayers. Pay now or pay later.