SAFE-HAVEN LAW

safe-haven law.Family law. A statute that protects a parent who abandons a baby at a

designated place such as a hospital, a physician’s office, or a fire station, where it can receive

emergency medical assistance as needed. • The law typically stipulates that a parent who leaves a

baby at such a place will not be publicly identified or prosecuted. Such laws have been enacted in

many states in response to a perceived increase in incidents of child abandonment. — Also termed

Baby Moses law. [Blacks Law 8th]