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The State-Level Impact of Safe Haven Laws on Rates of Infant Mortality in the United States: A Legal Epidemiology Study

Objectives: Although the United States has safe haven laws, which allow mothers to safely relinquish their babies to designated safety points, rates of infant mortality remain significantly higher in the United States than other similarly developed countries. The current study is seeking to explore the state-level impact of safe haven laws on infant mortality in the United States utilizing a legal epidemiological approach. Methods: Several sources of publicly available data were combined to examine the state-level impact of safe haven laws on rates of infant mortality. A backward stepwise regression was used to determine whether certain safe haven laws significantly predicted rates of infant mortality, while controlling for demographic variables. Results: After controlling for demographic variables including race, poverty, and education, safe haven laws regarding who is permitted to relinquish a child significantly predicted rates of infant mortality, with the total model accounting for 74.4% of variance in infant mortality. Conclusion: Safe haven laws pertaining to who may relinquish infants significantly predicted infant mortality, specifically laws stating only the mother may relinquish the child and laws which do not specify who may relinquish the child. These results have important implications for policymakers considering the reform of the safe haven laws. It is especially important to evaluate the effectiveness and origins of safe haven laws in the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Future studies should longitudinally examine how changes in safe haven laws lead to changes in rates of infant mortality.