[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 465 Engrossed in House (EH)]


                 In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

                                                        April 11, 2000.
Whereas April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, which provides Congress the 
        opportunity to focus attention and raise awareness of the problem of 
        newborn babies abandoned in public places;
Whereas the Department of Health and Human Services reports that, in 1998, 
        31,000 babies were delivered and abandoned in hospitals by mothers;
Whereas an unknown number of newborn babies are abandoned in dumpsters, trash 
        bins, alleys, warehouses, and bathrooms;
Whereas the Department of Health and Human Services conducted an informal survey 
        of major newspapers and found that, in 1998, 105 babies were found 
        abandoned in public places in the United States, of which 33 were found 
        dead, and that, in 1991, 65 babies were abandoned, of which 8 were found 
        dead;
Whereas national statistics on the number of infants abandoned in public places 
        are not kept, though States are required to submit data to the 
        Department of Health and Human Services on the number of children who 
        enter foster care as a result of abandonment in general;
Whereas Texas is the only State to have enacted a law designed to address this 
        social problem, though 24 other States are considering such legislation, 
        including Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, 
        Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North 
        Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Connecticut, Oregon, 
        Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Michigan, and New Mexico; and
Whereas there are innovative model programs in Houston, Mobile, Minneapolis, and 
        Syracuse that protect mothers who take newborns to hospitals or some 
        other safe haven rather than dumping them in a trash bin or leaving them 
        on a doorstep: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That local, State, and Federal statistics should be kept on the 
number of babies abandoned in public places.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.