By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Rep. Tim Johnson twice read aloud Psalm 82:3 to emphasize importance of a bill amending state law to allow relinquishment of an infant by anonymously placing a baby in a special container that could be located at health care facilities as well as police or fire stations.
Current Kansas law mandated people surrendering an infant to hand it off to a person to avoid threat of civil and criminal penalties. House Bill 2024 would expand the statute so a person with lawful custody of an infant not more than 60 days old could leave it in a container located in a structural wall of a designated facility. It would automatically lock to restrict access from outside once an infant was placed inside. An alarm would notify people in the building to the child’s presence.
“Defend the weak and the fatherless,” the Bonner Springs Republican proselytized to his House brethren. “Uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.”
Johnson said the objective was to make it more likely a child transitioned to caregivers without risk of injury or death. Alarms linked to the temperature-controlled enclosures would alert staff members of the need to take custody of a child. The infant would be promptly examined by a health professional to search for evidence of “great bodily” harm in case a law enforcement investigation was warranted.
No community facility eligible for the program would be required to install one of these child-safety devices. The Kansas Department for Children and Families would be notified of each relinquishment. There would be a prohibition on certain disclosures of an infant surrendered under the new law.
“This is completely voluntary,” Johnson said. “Not one city, not one county, not one jurisdiction will be required to.”
Since 2017, he said, 18 children had been surrendered to officials under existing state statute by parents who said they were unable to care for the kids.
The House gave first-round approval to the bill on Tuesday, then passed it Wednesday by a 94-30 vote. The bill now goes to the Kansas Senate for consideration.
Rep. Emil Bergquist, R-Park City, said he had four grandchildren who were left at orphanages as infants or young children. The children were in their teens and 20s and doing well, he said.
“They had that opportunity for a pivot point of a desperate mother, who for whatever reason, she had to let go of that baby,” he said. “I believe in second chances.”
In early February, the House voted to send the bill back to the House Child Welfare and Foster Care Committee for amendments. The modified bill did run into opposition from Republican and Democratic representatives.
Rep. Michael Houser, R-Columbus, said he was disappointed the measure would allow a person relinquishing a baby up to 30 days to reverse that decision. Houser said he was anxious a parent could unilaterally surrender a child without endorsement of a spouse or partner.
“I’m not trying to belittle this at all. This may be a good bill. I just have a lot of concern about it. I’m not here to poo-poo it. I’m on a fact-finding mission,” Houser said.
Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichta Democrat, said it wasn’t clear how a parent who disagreed with relinquishment could figure out where the child went given the level of anonymity of donor parents outlined in the bill. He offered a hypothetical in which an Oregon mother traveling to Florida dropped off a baby at a Wichita fire station without informing anyone else of the decision.
If a person did step forward to assert parental rights, Carmichael said, the bill unreasonably mandated a DNA test to prove parentage rather than rely on a birth certificate or some other evidence.
“I believe this bill has serious problems with implementation,” said Carmichael, who indicated the concept contemplated babies being left in the equivalent of a kennel. “Is this legislation really necessary? I do believe it is well-meaning, but we already have a law that provides immunity from prosecution.”
In a rebuttal during House floor debate, Johnson bristled at the suggestion enclosures installed for this purpose were akin to a kennel.
“That offends me. These are children,” he said. ‘This is a child safety device. It is a tool. It will save lives.”