Update | Maryland’s Parent Trap: Baltimore Mother Punished After Using Safe Haven Law That Claimed to Protect Her

27 Civil Rights Organizations and Leaders File Amicus Brief in Maryland Supreme Court Defending Parents’ Right to Access the Safe Haven Law Without Liability.

Anne Arundel County, MD – 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. 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. Ms. C did everything the Safe Haven program required of her — but the state punished her anyway. 

Soon after, the Baltimore “child welfare” system, also known as the family policing system, lodged charges against her. Prosecutors alleged in their petition that Ms. C neglected her babies by relying on the Safe Haven statute. Ms. C was put through agonizing, protracted hearings, after which the trial court found that she had neglected her babies. This finding is accompanied by lasting punishment for Ms. C, including the threat that the family policing system could more easily remove her children in the future. 

“The Safe Haven law was supposedly made to help parents and children. I trusted it, and then they penalized me when I tried to use it,” said Ms. C.

In October 2025, Ms. C. petitioned the Supreme Court of Maryland to review the lower court’s decision. Civil rights groups, physicians, and organizations advancing reproductive justice filed amicus briefs in support of the petition. In November, the Court granted Ms. C’s petition and agreed to review the case.

“We are glad that the Maryland Supreme Court agreed to review this important case. Through its Safe Haven law, Maryland promises mothers in desperate straits the ability to access safe care for their child without fear of legal punishment. By breaking the promise of immunity from civil and criminal liability, Maryland has created a no-win situation where parents are punished no matter what they do,” said Alexa Richardson, attorney at Civil Rights Corps. “It’s the perfect parent trap.”

On Jan 12, a group of 27 organizations and movement leaders filed a new amicus brief in support of Ms. C as her case is heard by the Maryland Supreme Court. 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. 

“The family policing system surveils and separates marginalized families—and in Maryland, the weight of punitive laws fall most harshly on Black and poor families,” said Miriam Mack, Campaigns and Advocacy Director & Senior Legal Counsel at Movement for Family Power. “We hope the Supreme Court will overturn the Appellate Court’s unjust ruling and above all, we urge the state of Maryland to invest in families and community-based crisis solutions that support postpartum people’s access to resources, rest, and respite, so that family integrity is not a luxury of the privileged but a right protected for all.”

“The Appellate Court’s opinion undermines the stated purpose of this law. Fear of being accused of child neglect will deter parents from using Safe Havens, putting parent and infant health back at heightened risk—the exact harm the law was meant to prevent,” said Adina Marx-Arpadi, attorney and Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We urge the Maryland Supreme Court to clarify that the Safe Haven law includes immunity from all criminal and civil liability, including a finding of neglect, so that parents are not punished for making a safe choice for their child.”

Amici include the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”), the ACLU of Maryland, Angela Olivia Burton, Baltimore Families for Justice, Blessings in Transformation, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law Family Defense Clinic, Civil Rights Corps, Dorothy Roberts, Elephant Circle, InTuned Consulting, LLC, JMACforFamilies, Joyce McMillan, K. Adeniyi Law, APC, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Mining for Gold, the MJCF:Coalition, Movement for Family Power, the National Center for Youth Law, Operation Stop CPS, Rise, the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (“CFCC”), South East Family Freedom Alliance, UpEND, The Bronx Defenders, and the University of Baltimore School of Law Family Law Clinic.

Learn more about the case and find relevant documents HERE. 

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Civil Rights Corps challenges systemic injustice in the U.S. legal system. Through innovative civil rights litigation, advocacy, and public education, we aim to re-sensitize the legal system and our culture to the injustice and brutality that characterizes the contemporary U.S. legal system. Our work is guided by a commitment to the people and communities harmed by policing, surveillance, incarceration, discrimination, and the criminalization of poverty. Follow CRC on social media: IG: @civrightscorps, Bluesky: civrightscorps.bsky.social, and LinkedIn. 

Movement for Family Power is a movement hub and incubator, cultivating and harnessing community power to end family policing and build a world where all families can thrive. We resource and support grassroots organizers and lived experts on the frontlines of dismantling the family policing system through our three-pronged approach: connection, capacity, and care. Follow Movement for Family Power on social media: @movementforfamilypower on Instagram, @movfamilypower.bsky.social on Bluesky, Movement for Family Power on Facebook, and Movement for Family Power on LinkedIn. 

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org. Follow the Center for Constitutional Rights on social media: Center for Constitutional Rights on Facebook, @theCCR on Twitter, and ccrjustice on Instagram.