In re B.Cd & B.Cb

Maryland’s Safe Haven Act (Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-641) permits a birth parent to relinquish custody of a newborn by leaving the child with a responsible adult or at a designated facility—such as a hospital, doctor’s office, police station, or fire house—within sixty days after birth. 

In a series of rulings in 2024 and 2025, a juvenile court found that a woman known in court records as Ms. C was negligent for surrendering newborn twins to a hospital in accordance with the Safe Haven Act.  It is undisputed that the twins were unharmed at the time of the surrender.  As a result of the negligence finding, Ms. C must be permanently listed in the state’s child abuse registry.  In addition, she is at heightened risk of state intervention in her relationships with her other children, and she will be disadvantaged in any future proceeding to regain custody of the twins should she seek to pursue reunification. 

On August 28, 2025, the Appellate Court of Maryland affirmed the neglect finding.  On November 24, 2025, the Maryland Supreme Court granted Ms. C’s petition to review the Appellate Court’s judgment. 

Together with Pregnancy Justice, the Lawyering Project filed an amicus brief with the Maryland Supreme Court arguing that Ms. C’s decision to relinquish custody of the twins in a safe and lawful manner is constitutionally protected by Maryland’s recently enacted Reproductive Freedom Amendment, as well as Maryland’s counterpart to the Ninth Amendment, which protects unenumerated fundamental rights (i.e., rights that are essential to people’s liberty and dignity but not explicitly identified in the constitution).   

On July 15, 2026, in a disappointing decision, the Maryland Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Court’s judgment, holding as a matter of statutory interpretation that voluntarily surrendering a newborn in accordance with Maryland’s Safe Haven Law is per se child neglect.   

Action by the state legislature is urgently needed to address the injustice caused by the current statutory scheme.