w00t w00t booyah

I disagree.

If you don't want kids, you should think of that before you have them, or if you have them by accident, you should relinquish them when they are so young that they won't remember you and be traumatized by it. As an educator, I work with children who are sometimes shuffled from parent to parent (or relative) all the time at the convenience of either adult, and it is very visibly damaging to their self esteem and self image. I can only imagine it would be a hundred times worse to be left at a fire station or hospital without much of an explanation why.

Safe haven laws are not and should not be for parents who just don't want to take responsibility for their past mistakes as parents, or who decide their children are all of a sudden too much for them to care. They are designed and should be used by women who are cognizant of the fact that they don't want a child right off the bat, but who feel like they don't have anyone else to turn to. Even then, the law should be used sparingly. They should be coupled with strong social programs that make it easier for women to realize they have other choices aside for dropping off their infants in the dark of the night, and indeed other choices aside for becoming pregnant in the first place if that isn't what they wanted.

If you have a teenager that you cannot (despite desperate attempts) control, most states can and will intervene to sever your parental rights while providing adequate counseling for both parties. If the problems are financial, there is help out there. I realize that most of that help is inadequate, but it should be exhausted before a parent just looks to abandon their children (I am thinking here of the widower dad who dropped off his kids without asking for any help from state agencies and even his own relatives). And besides, if that social services help is inadequate? You fight to change things, you don't just dump your children like yesterday's trash.