2019 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 24 - Health and Safety
Article 22 - Safe Haven for Infants
Section 24-22-4 - Safe haven site procedures.

A. A safe haven site shall accept an infant who is left at the safe haven site in accordance with the provisions of the Safe Haven for Infants Act.

B. In conjunction with the children, youth and families department, a safe haven site shall develop procedures for appropriate staff to accept and provide necessary medical services to an infant left at the safe haven site and to the person leaving the infant at the safe haven site, if necessary.

C. Upon receiving an infant who is left at a safe haven site in accordance with the provisions of the Safe Haven for Infants Act, the safe haven site may provide the person leaving the infant with:

(1) information about adoption services, including the availability of private adoption services;

(2) brochures or telephone numbers for agencies that provide adoption services or counseling services; and

(3) written information regarding whom to contact at the children, youth and families department if the parent decides to seek reunification with the infant.

D. A safe haven site shall ask the person leaving the infant whether the infant has a parent who is either a member of an Indian tribe or is eligible for membership in an Indian tribe, but the person leaving the infant is not required to provide that information to the safe haven site.

E. Immediately after receiving an infant in accordance with the provisions of the Safe Haven for Infants Act, a safe haven site shall inform the children, youth and families department that the infant has been left at the safe haven site. The safe haven site shall provide the children, youth and families department with all available information regarding the child and the parents, including the identity of the child and the parents, the location of the parents and the child's medical records.

History: Laws 2001, ch. 31, § 4; 2001, ch. 132, § 4; 2005, ch. 26, § 5; 2013, ch. 20, § 4.

The 2013 amendment, effective June 14, 2013, changed terminology to conform to changes in terminology in the act; in the title of the section, at the beginning of the title, deleted "hospital" and added "safe haven site"; and in Subsections A though E, deleted "hospital" and inserted "safe haven site".

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, provided that a hospital shall ask the person leaving an infant whether the infant has a parent who is a member of an Indian tribe or is eligible for membership in an Indian tribe, but the person leaving the infant is not required to give the information and requires the hospital to immediately provide the children, youth and families department with all available information about the child and the parents of the child.