By Kelly Youngblood
Aidan Jane is a third grade student at Countryside School in Champaign. She‘s a great singer, loves to ride horses, and takes piano lessons.
She’s also the 36th baby in Illinois to be safely and anonymously relinquished under the states Safe Haven Law, which was enacted 15 years ago.
Lori and Lesley Millar-Nicholson will always be grateful for the Safe Haven Law that allowed them to adopt their daughter, Aidan Jane, which is why they are still working to educate and raise awareness about the law today.
“For us, it was how we got our beautiful, precious daughter,” Lori Millar-Nicholson said.
The Illinois Abandoned Newborn Protection Act, commonly called the Save Haven Law, allows mothers to leave a baby, up to 30 days old and unharmed, with a staff member at any hospital, fire station, police station or emergency medical services provider in Illinois without any questions asked.
Every state has some form of a Safe Haven Law that allows parents to leave their newborns at a designated place, although specific guidelines do vary from state to state. Indiana just passed a law that allows babies to be left in a climate controlled box at certain locations.
The Safe Haven Law, which was first instated in Illinois in August of 2001, is meant to prevent the illegal abandonment of newborns.
Nationally, the law has saved the lives of over 3,000 infants.To date in Illinois, 112 infants have been safely relinquished and adopted thanks to the law.
During that same time, 78 newborns were illegally abandoned in Illinois on steps, in bushes and garbage cans, and of those, 40 infants did not survive.
“Those are stark numbers,” Millar-Nicholson said.
It’s been almost nine years since Aidan Jane was born, handed over to emergency room staff at an Oak Park, Ill. hospital, and then placed with her adoptive family. But Millar-Nicholson, who is a trained attorney, is still advocating for the law.
Just weeks after the recent tragedy involving a University of Illinois student charged with suffocating her newborn son in a dorm bathroom, Millar-Nicholson and her daughter traveled to Springfield to talk with legislators and others about the Safe Haven Law.
“We support the law and we support the very valiant efforts of the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation,” she said.
Formed by Dawn Geras and based in Chicago, the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation was instrumental in getting the Safe Haven Law passed. The goal of the organization is to prevent the illegal abandonment of newborns by raising awareness of the safe, legal options available under the Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act.
Along with other members of the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, Millar-Nicholson believes educating the public and raising awareness of the law could save lives.
And while she admits she doesn’t know enough about the U of I student’s situation, “You have to hope if someone had reached out to her about the Safe Haven Law, maybe she would have made a different decision.”
Today, Millar-Nicholson is grateful that Aidan Jane’s birth mother was aware of the law and her options.
“It means the world to us that this law existed and that the birth mom and, perhaps those surrounding her, knew about it and used it,” she said.
She added, “We are thankful every day to Aidan Jane’s birth mother and whoever was surrounding her that night on Aug. 12, 2007 so that she… was able to make the courageous and the loving choice to make sure that Aidan Jane got to a safe location, a safe haven, where she could be checked out and then she could find her forever family.”
For more information about the Safe Haven Law or the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, go here.