HB529 Summary

• Repeals existing law allowing parents to surrender infants 72 hours old or younger to hospitals and replaces it with the Alabama Safe Harbor Act allowing surrender of infants 7 days old or younger to fire stations or emergency medical services stations.

• Allows mothers who give birth in hospitals to leave newborn infants at the hospital and decline being named on the birth certificate.

• Requires fire stations, emergency medical services stations, and hospitals to accept surrendered newborn infants and provide medical care, with presumption that infants qualify for Medicaid.

• Transfers custody of surrendered infants to the Department of Human Resources, which must place infants with licensed child-placing agencies, and allows parents to reclaim infants until a court terminates parental rights.

• Provides immunity from criminal or civil liability for good faith actions by fire stations, emergency medical services providers, and hospitals, and establishes that surrendered newborns are not considered abandoned unless actual or suspected child abuse or neglect is involved.