Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) says three babies have been brought to emergency rooms this year under the state’s Safe Haven law.
That law says a parent can bring an infant to an ER within 30 days of birth and avoid prosecution for abandonment.
The law is 15-years-old, but only 27 babies have been brought to hospitals in that time.
Michael Williams is DCF’s deputy commissioner. Williams says it’s unusual to see three babies dropped off within just six weeks of each other.
“Usually we have them trickle in with huge intervals of time and space, but to have them come so close together in 2016 was something that surprised us.”
Williams says two babies were brought to a hospital in Hartford in early January, another one to a hospital in Westbrook in February.
DCF takes custody of the child when it’s left at the ER and then begins the adoption process.