By KYLE CRANE
KU Statehouse Wire Service
TOPEKA — The Kansas House unanimously passed a bill Friday that would provide protection of anonymity for parents who willingly surrender physical custody of a child of 45 days or younger.
House bill 2577 would amend the Newborn Infant Protection Act by prohibiting a person or facility receiving a child from revealing information about the parents. The parents’ personal information would be kept confidential unless there was reasonable suspicion of child abuse.
Rep. Jan Pauls, D-Hutchinson, and author of the bill, said the added protection could save children’s lives by preventing parents in desperate situations from resorting to drastic measures.
“Almost every community knows of a couple tragedies when is child is thrown out and dies,” Pauls said. “It’s important that people know there’s another option.”
The Act, passed in 2007, was created to provide a safe haven for children to be taken in and placed for adoption. The law states that hospitals are not required to reveal the name or personally identifiable information of a parent.
Pauls said the need to change the law’s language to explicitly prevent the release of information came to her attention when a TV station published a photo of a mother who left her newborn at a Wichita hospital.
The hospital, concerned about the mother’s welfare, gave the police her information. The TV station published a photo of the mother in an attempt to aid the police’s search for her. The station voluntarily changed its policy to prohibit releasing such information after it was criticized for the publication.
“We thought the statute was clear but it obviously was not clear enough,” Pauls said. “Now we make it very clear that they shall not reveal that information.”
The House initially passed the bill in February and sent it to the Senate for consideration. Senators passed the bill last Tuesday after expanding the list of locations where an infant may be surrendered to include law enforcement offices. The bill will be presented to the governor for approval.
Kyle Crane is a University of Kansas senior from Overland Park majoring in journalism.