Colorado is expanding a law that lets parents leave unharmed newborns at fire stations or hospitals without facing child abandonment charges.
Under the new version of the “Safe Haven” law signed this week by Gov. Jared Polis, parents will have 30 days to drop off babies they don’t want to keep. That’s up from just 72 hours.
The legislation easily made it to the governor’s desk, with conservatives saying it would lead to “protecting life” and liberals saying it would give mothers more choice in deciding what to do after unexpected pregnancies. Supporters on both sides said that expanding the window in which parents can safely give up newborns would give mothers time to contemplate the decision beyond the stage of panic, shock or postpartum rush of hormones.
“The first few days after childbirth are not calm or clear,” said Rep. Rebecca Keltie, a Republican from Colorado Springs and a prime sponsor of the bill. “They are intense. A mother’s body is flooded with hormones and often distressed.”
The extra time allows for “clarity to emerge” and gives parents “the space to choose what is truly best for themselves and their baby,” said Keltie, who introduced the bill with coprime sponsor Rep. Gretchen Rydin, a Democrat from Littleton.
The law, originally passed in 2000, is intended to prevent new parents from illegally abandoning or killing newborns, though that problem continues. On Christmas Eve 2024, Adams County sheriff’s deputies recovered a 1-month-old baby boy left in a carseat in the median of Pecos Street, wearing only a diaper. And in January, a young mother was sentenced to 35 years in prison for stabbing her newborn daughter to death shortly after the baby’s birth at a Weld County home.
From 2001 to 2024, 87 newborns were relinquished at fire stations, clinics and hospitals under the law, according to data from Colorado Safe Haven for Newborns.
El Paso County, one of the most conservative counties in the state, had 25 babies dropped off under the law, more than any other county in Colorado, said Sara Wagner, executive director of Colorado Safe Haven, which formed after the deaths of three newborns across the state in the summer of 2004, including one found in a trash can at a Cherry Creek bar.
Colorado officials do not expect that the change in law will lead to more newborns being relinquished, judging by what has happened in other states. Colorado is among only six states where parents have 72 hours to make the drop-off. Twenty-two states allow up to 30 days, and 12 states allow more than 30 days.
Another update will address reunification
Under the Colorado law, parents can drop off their newborn anonymously, with no questions asked, but they must hand off the baby to a person at a fire station, clinic or hospital and not leave the infant on a doorstep. If the child has been abused or neglected, the parent is not exempt from child abuse charges.
Babies are given physical exams and then turned over to child protective services. They enter the child welfare system, and caseworkers place them with foster parents as they work to find adoptive parents.
The current version of the law does not allow for parents who have relinquished newborns to change their mind and come back for their child a few weeks or months later, but some state officials are hoping to change that. The new law requires that the Colorado Department of Human Services go through a rule-making process to determine what it would take to restore parental rights after giving up a newborn under the safe haven law.
About 20 other states have included a process for reunification in their safe haven laws, some by stating that biological parents can pursue that option as long as an adoption has not been finalized, said Melanie Jordan, policy director of the Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel in Colorado, which represents parents’ rights in court.
During testimony on the legislation at the state Capitol, Jordan cautioned against a law that could harm a mother who decided on day 29 to relinquish her baby, changed her mind on day 31, and then lost the child forever.
Rydin said she consulted with Planned Parenthood, the abortion-rights group Cobalt and county child welfare officials before sponsoring the bill. She said it’s hard to track the reasons people give up newborns because there is no data collection, but said some cases are connected to lack of mental health help and housing instability.
“The number of babies that are relinquished is very small,” the lawmaker said. “We are talking about less than 10 per year.”
The new law is set to take effect in August. Colorado passed a related law in 2019 that says school districts that teach sex education must include information about safe abandonment of newborns.