If You Don't Want Your Baby...

I'm talking specifically to you new mothers down here in Texas because I honestly don't know how things work in other states, much less other nations. But for you Texas-based women, here's how things work.

So you have a baby. Maybe you didn't want to have a baby. Perhaps you either missed the abortion deadline or couldn't make up your mind before that deadline passed. But whatever the case, you ended up with a bundle that isn't so joyful as far as you're concerned.

Now, I'm sure that having an unwanted baby sucks. I can't say that I understand how it feels, because I've never been there. And this is not going to be a "You shouldn't have an abortion" type of post, either. I'm pro-life, yes. But I'm sure that you've all heard every single thing that anybody could possibly say about alternatives to abortion, why abortion isn't necessarily the best idea, et cetera. The subject has been beaten half to death.

Back to the unwanted baby thing: so this kid's just been born. Oh, great. What do you do now? You don't want this responsibility. You're young! You're supposed to be out having fun with your boyfriend(s), your buddies, your classmates. Squeezing something the size of a watermelon out of a hole the size of a garden hose was NOT on your mind when you did the horizontal mamba with your favorite member of the male species.

All right. Mistakes happen. This does not have to be the end of your life. You don't even have to keep this baby if you don't feel like you can handle the responsibility. If you decide, right this second, that you can't deal with this, you can take care of things right now. No waiting, no phone calls, nothing.

Down here in Texas, we have the Baby Moses Law. It's a very simple, straightforward procedure that is designed to encourage you to do the right thing.

Simply put: you take the baby and physically hand him or her to a hospital employee, law-enforcement agent or fire fighter. You don't have to identify yourself, or stick around to fill out any paperwork. Simply hand off the baby and walk away - nobody will bother you ever again. The person who takes the kid will make sure that the little guy or gal is taken to the hospital, checked out, and put through the adoption process. Somebody who really wants a baby will get that kid - and you can walk away knowing that the baby is safe.

Oh, and there are no legal consequences, either. Nobody is going to arrest you or sue you. Nobody will bug you for child support. Unless you open your mouth and talk about the extremely-difficult decision that you just had to make, nobody will even know that you participated in the Baby Moses program.

This program is well publicized. Drive around to different hospitals and fire stations. Do you see the big, yellow and black signs? The ones that depict a mother holding a baby? These signs mean that the building you're staring at is part of the Baby Moses program. Somebody inside will gladly take that baby from you.

Therefore:

There is NO excuse for abandoning, torturing or killing babies, at least here in Texas. I don't know if other states have this program, or one like it. But I DO know that I'm sick of hearing about newborns being abandoned when I turn on the local news.

What excuse do these mothers have for tossing newborns into Dumpsters? What's the reasoning behind the decision to give birth in a public restroom and let the newborn drown? How can these scumbuckets explain why they decided to beat the kid to death, lock her in a box, and send her floating on the water in Galveston?

There is no excuse. None whatsoever. You might convince me that a FEW of these people are victims of crippling mental illness - like post-partum psychosis. Yes, that's possible. It does happen. But I can't believe that ALL of these women (and the boyfriends/husbands who, shockingly enough, HELP torture and kill the kids) are mentally unstable or sick.

If you can't or won't keep the baby, then you have an obligation to make sure that he or she rests in safe arms. You have a duty - because you chose to reproduce - to pass off the kid to somebody in the Baby Moses program. Or consult an adoption agency. Or something. With all of these options and choices...with the anonymity of Baby Moses and the guarantee that you'll never be identified, much less hassled or prosecuted...I can't excuse the sick and twisted things that some of these mothers are doing to their children.

The sad part: I don't even LIKE kids. I'm danged near allergic to babies, folks. But it still drives me out of my skull when somebody intentionally harms one of them.