I once heard of people who had baskets on their front porch for unwanted babies. I think this was in the 1980’s? Not sure. If a mother did not want her baby she could leave it in the basket, and I suppose it was understood the people in that house would legally adopt it. Not sure what state this was in.
I remember a lot of Looney Tune/Merrie Melody Cartoons always had the “Baby on the door step” theme them in some of their shows, so this must have been a practice back in the 1920’s to 1960’s?
Shame we could not do this again as a society.
A woman near me took in unwanted babies. We live in a poor neighborhood with plenty of pregnant teenagers. Babies were being left in trash cans, dumpsters, you name it.
This state does now have a safe haven law so I haven’t seen the baskets on her porch lately. However, I’ve been told she has spoken at our local schools to young girls about the law and she has made herself available to informally counsel confused, frightened, pregnant teens.
1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.
7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.
9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the women took the child, and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
“I remember a lot of Looney Tune/Merrie Melody Cartoons always had the “Baby on the door step” theme them in some of their shows...”
Funny, as I was browsing this thread, I am watching the “Popeye” movie, where they find a “baby in a basket”, complete with a note from the anonymous mother pinned to its chest.