South Carolina Organizations Offer Alternatives to Child Abandonment

Pregnant women who don't want to keep their babies do have options in South Carolina.

That's the message local law enforcement and pro-life advocates are sending after at an apartment complex in Columbia on Monday. 

The woman, 21-year-old Orenthia McCuller, was , but Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said she wouldn't have been charged, if she had left her baby at a hospital instead of outside an apartment complex. 

"If you have a child and you don't want that child, you can leave it at the hospital and we'll take care of it," Lott said.

A South Carolina law protects mothers who leave their babies at a designated safe haven, such as a hospital, law enforcement office or fire station, from prosecution.

The law, Daniel's Law, was created in 2000 after an abandoned baby boy was found in a landfill. Nurses at the Midlands hospital where he was taken named him Daniel. 

Babies left at safe havens will be placed in the custody of the S.C. Department of Social Services. The agency will place the child in a foster home until he or she can be put up for adoption.

All 50 states have infant safe haven laws in place to prevent child abandonment, according to a 2011 report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Pregnancy centers in the Midlands can also help women with adoption and exploring other options.

Daybreak Crisis Pregnancy Center offers free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds for women, Director Patti Richardson said.

Women who come to Daybreak usually don't need to consider Daniel's Law because Daybreak can help set up an adoption ahead of time, Richardson said.

"The girl who made the wrong choice on Monday — she could have come here," Richardson said. "Maybe she didn't know."

For women who decide to keep their babies, there are parenting classes and a store where expectant mothers can earn points and in turn redeem those points for items for their baby.

"We're just here to give them the help that they need in a crisis situation," Richardson said.

Richardson said she hopes Daybreak can help other pregnant women so that they don't end up in McCuller's situation.

"She was desperate. She was hopeless. She was in fear," Richardson said. "That's what Daybreak is about — to help alleviate all that before she gets to that point."

Daybreak Crisis Pregnancy Center has two locations — one in downtown Columbia at 2009 Hampton St., Suite C, and one in Lexington at 601 Northwood Road, Suite A.