safe haven law
safe-haven law. Family law. A statute that protects a parent who abandons a baby at a designated place such as a hospital, a physician’s office, or a fire station, where it can receive emergency medical assistance as needed. • The law typically stipulates that a parent who leaves a baby at such a place will not be publicly identified or prosecuted. Such laws have been enacted in many states in response to a perceived increase in incidents of child abandonment. — Also termed Baby Moses law.
