Defending Parents’ Right to Access the Safe Haven Law Without Liability

In Re: B.Cd. & B.Cb – Amicus Brief

In January 2025, Civil Rights Corps, Movement for Family Power, Center for Constitutional Rights, alongside 24 civil rights organizations and movement leaders, filed an amicus brief in support of a Baltimore mother whose case involving Maryland’s Safe Haven law is being heard by the Maryland Supreme Court. The case is being litigated by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender (OPD). 

In 2024, Ms. C, a 23-year-old woman and mother of two older children, gave birth to twins. Newly postpartum, and without adequate support, she felt that she could not give them the life she wanted them to have. She researched her options and found the Maryland Safe Haven Law. The Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS) advertised this law as a non-punitive alternative for parents who are unable to care for their newborns, and the statute guarantees immunity from criminal or civil charges for parents who followed the law. Reassured, Ms. C took her healthy four-day-old twins to the designated “safe location,” the hospital, and provided all the necessary information, in accordance with the Safe Haven law. 

Soon after, the Baltimore “child welfare” system — also known as the family policing system — lodged civil charges against her. Prosecutors alleged in their petition that Ms. C neglected her babies solely by relying on the Safe Haven Statute. Ms. C appealed the finding of neglect, arguing that the plain language of the law prohibited such a finding. However, in August 2025, the Appellate Court of Maryland denied Ms. C’s appeal and affirmed the trial court’s finding. 

In October 2025, Ms. C. petitioned the Supreme Court of Maryland to review the lower court’s decision. Civil rights groups and advocates, including Civil Rights Corps, physicians concerned with maternal health, and organizations advancing reproductive justice, filed amicus briefs in support of the petition. 

In November, in a rare move for a case involving child neglect, the Maryland Supreme Court granted Ms. C’s petition and agreed to review the case. Dozens of civil rights groups and advocates filed a new amicus brief in support of the case. The brief explains that the lower court’s interpretation of the law will harm Maryland’s most marginalized infants, parents, and families and extend the punitive approach of the family policing system by seeking neglect findings against people who follow the Safe Haven law. Physicians and organizations advancing reproductive justice filed additional amicus briefs in support of the petition.

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