From The Seattle Times
By Leonard Pitts Jr.

At one level, it sounds like a very bad joke.

In September, a safe-haven law took effect in the state of Nebraska allowing parents to leave their children at hospitals without fear of prosecution. This, as a means of saving the lives of unwanted newborns who would otherwise be left in garbage heaps and motel rooms or simply murdered outright. Nebraska was the last state in the union to pass such a law, and unlike the other 49 states, it did not limit the ages of children that could be legally abandoned.

You’ve heard what happened next: 36 kids have since been left at Nebraska hospitals. Most were older than 11. Some had severe mental and behavioral problems. Some had been transported hundreds of miles across the country by parents desperate to be rid of them.

A few days ago, Nebraska amended its law. It now requires that abandoned children be less than 30 days old.

As I said, there is a bad joke here. After all, what is more common than the parental lament of being driven crazy by children? But if you know what these parents have been through, you know there’s nothing funny here. I testify from experience.

When she was a teenager, my stepdaughter — now 31 and doing better, thank you — was a hellion. She was violent, she stole from the house and she was a chronic runaway, shoplifter and liar. Four days after Christmas the year she turned 18, she gave birth after a pregnancy she had kept secret. You can imagine what a lovely surprise this was.

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