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New Effort to Raise Awareness of Abandoned Baby Law in IL

By Maria Hickey, KWMU

St. Louis, MO – Monday is "Save Abandoned Babies Day," which is part of an effort to raise awareness of a 2001 law.

Since that time, the state has allowed women to abandon their babies legally at hospitals and fire and police stations.

But Dawn Geras, president of the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, says many women still don't know about the law.

She says the new public awareness campaign will get the word out to women of all ages and backgrounds because "we're finding out there are no parameters."

"There's no particular target group," Geras added. "We've had everything from young girls 14 and 15 up to the ages of 39-year old women."

Geras says 14 babies have been left at safe havens since the law went into effect. But also during that time 33 babies were illegally abandoned, and 18 of them died.

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