COLUMBIA - A church, a fire station, a hospital.
All are better places for a newborn baby than the garbage, said state Rep. Doug Jennings, D-Bennettsville, a member of the House's Judiciary criminal laws subcommittee.
On Thursday, the panel voted to expand the list of places unwanted newborns can be taken and given up without parents being charged with a crime - with the caveat that the child be handed over to a person and not simply left outside a building.
"We as a people of faith have an obligation to protect 'the least of these' and those that cannot help themselves," Mr. Jennings said.
Since 2000, "Daniel's Law" has allowed parents to leave their newborns at a hospital or hospital outpatient facility without fear of criminal prosecution. The law is named for an infant who survived after being buried in a landfill soon after his birth.
In 2002, the high-profile abandonment of several children, including Baby Grace in Savannah, Ga., helped prompt a similar law in that state.
South Carolina lawmakers now are proposing a revision to also allow parents - or someone they ask - to leave a child at a "safe haven," defined to include law enforcement agencies and places of worship.
The full House and Senate and Gov. Mark Sanford still need to support the changes for the law to be changed.
The Rev. Brenda Kneece, the executive minister for the South Carolina Christian Action Council, says she is worried that babies would be dropped off at empty buildings and not found in time to save their lives.
Of the 9,000 religious congregations in South Carolina, more than 50 percent have only part-time staff, she said.
But lawmakers amended the bill to require that, in order to avoid criminal prosecution, anyone who leaves the child or directs someone else to leave a child must give the baby to a person.
Mr. Jennings said there would be a statewide effort to educate staff members at any "safe haven" as to their obligations when a child is brought to them.
When a newborn is given away, staff members would ask for a medical history and the names of any other parents, or provide a form to be filled out with that information.
Any identifying information would be kept confidential.
"I believe that if we save one life, then clearly these (changes) would be worth the life we saved," the Rev. Kneece said.
Reach Kirsten Singleton at (803) 414-6611 or kirsten.singleton@morris.com.