Baby Boy Doe left at Stark County fire station by mother under Ohio's Safe Havens law

CANTON ‒ Baby Boy Doe will get a home and a name.

The mother of the 7-pound, 2-ounce baby gave him to a firefighter at the Alliance Fire Department on Jan. 24, the day after he was born. Known only as Jane Doe, she was able to leave her newborn under Ohio's Safe Havens law.

"This was, I'm sure, a really difficult decision to make," said Tricia Mayle, deputy director of Children Services for the Stark County Department of Job & Family Services.

The agency has emergency custody. The newborn is in foster care.

A hearing before Stark County Family Court Judge Michelle Cordova is scheduled for Feb. 21, the next step in what officials expect will lead to a permanent adoption by the foster family.

"This is an option that's available. ... I'm grateful (the mother) made this parenting decision," said Quay Compton, chief legal counsel for Children Services.

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What is Ohio's Safe Havens law?

Enacted in 2001, the Safe Havens law provides a parent the opportunity to leave a baby — without being prosecuted for abandoning the newborn — during the first 30 days after birth.

The baby must be given to a medical worker in a hospital, an officer at a law enforcement agency, or a medical worker at a fire department or EMS organization. In the last few years, several drop-off spots, dubbed baby boxes, have been installed at fire and medical facilities, mostly along the western edge of the state.

Compton said the last Safe Havens baby case in Stark County was in 2018. Another, in East Sparta in 2012, did not qualify as a safe haven act, Compton said.

In that case, someone left a newborn outside the village fire department. The baby girl was dressed in a hoodie and bundled in what appeared to be towels ― but she was not delivered directly to a person, as required by the law.

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Mom didn't leave name in Alliance Safe Havens case

According to a Family Court legal filing, Children Services was notified on Jan. 24 that a mother left a newborn boy with a firefighter at the Alliance department. The baby was initially taken to a hospital for evalauation and observation.

The mother did not provide her name. The mother said she'd delivered the boy at home with the help of a midwife, and that the baby had received prenatal care.

"Baby is doing well," Mayle said.

A parent who leaves a baby under the Safe Havens law has an option to fill out a one-page medical history. Compton and Mayle said it was unclear if that was done in this case.

The Alliance Fire Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Combat vs. newborn abandonment deaths

The law, approved in 2000, was sponsored by Cheryl Winkler. One of the co-sponsors was Stark County's Kirk Schuring, now a state senator. Winkler, a Hamilton County Republican, died in 2012.

She had championed the legislation as a way to combat stories in Ohio and nationwide of mothers abandoning babies in such places as trash bags and outside of a college dorm.

"I think this is a responsible way to take care of a problem," then-former representative Winkler told the Columbus Dispatch for a story in January 2001. "This is aimed primarily at teen mothers who have kept a pregnancy hidden, given birth in secret and will dump their newborn, most likely very quickly."

A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services did not immediately provide information about the number of Safe Havens babies statewide.

In 2012, a Canton Repository story stated there had been 71 babies across the state in the first dozen years of the law's existence. Published reports since then indicate that it's difficult to track a number because such cases are handled within individual counties.

"Not all women who get pregnant are ready to raise a child," the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services says on its website. "If either parent changes their mind and wishes to get their newborn back, the parent will need to go to the local public children services agency in the county where the newborn was left. The parent will be asked to complete a DNA test to prove maternity or paternity and this may be a cost to the parent."

Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 or tim.botos@cantonrep.com.On X: @tbotosREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Baby left at Alliance fire station under Ohio's Safe Havens laws