PORT ANGELES — When a young woman called police on Sunday and reported her newborn baby as abandoned, she could have taken the child to a hospital or fire station and found a safe place for it — no questions asked.
Under legislation enacted in Washington last year to increase adequate care for newborns, parents can anonymously leave their unwanted, unharmed babies who are less than 72 hours old with hospital or fire station staff and face no prosecution.
Olympic Medical Center is one of several hospitals in the state that has created a program to provide safe places for newborns.
“It’s an unusual situation, but it’s something that we do have something in place for,” Olympic Medical Center spokeswoman Rhonda LoPresti said Tuesday.
On Sunday, the hospital’s policy was partially tested when a 21-year-old Port Angeles woman drove her two-day-old daughter to her place of work in Sequim, then called police and reported that she had found the child abandoned in her car.
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The rest of the story appears in the Wednesday Peninsula Daily News.
