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Several agencies address mothers in crisis and hope to prevent more abandoned newborns

Posted 5:15PM on Tuesday 9th July 2019 ( 4 years ago )

Agencies specializing in supporting parents who encounter difficulty caring for their children hope to use the story of abandoned Baby India to educate and encourage other struggling parents.

During a press conference Tuesday on the steps of the Forsyth County Courthouse, Georgia Life Alliance organized the event and spokesman Joshua Edmonds said, "It brings to light so many questions about the situation, not only about baby India, but about all of the babies like her and all of the mothers like baby India's. With all of the people who've reached out wanting to know more about this situation and how they can help, we thought it was prudent as Georgia Life Alliance, the leading pro-life organization in the state, to bring together all of the resources that we could here in this area to highlight ways that the community can get involved to support folks who are fostering and adopting and who are caring for children like baby India."

Sarah Koeppen from The Hope Box spoke about the Safe Haven law that allows mothers to drop off their babies with workers at any hospital, fire or police station up to 30 days after birth and do so anonymously. "But she also needs to know that she can get medical help too. She will be transported legally and safely and her identity will be protected if she needs that. We don't want any mother to be put at risk when delivering outside of a hospital."

Vicki Colls with Abiding Love Adoptions says the first step is to stop harshly judging and bullying birth moms. "They deserve a little more respect than what they get and I would love to see that shift in culture start to happen so that they can begin to be honored for the decision that they made to try to do something different for their child," Colls said. 

The other agency offering support included Giving Children a Chance Georgia.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2019/7/812341/several-agencies-address-mothers-in-crisis-and-hope-to-prevent-more-abandoned-newborns

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