Okay, I have HAD IT.

I just caught wind of a story from a 10pm nightly news story. Apparently, this morning ANOTHER newborn baby was found in a GARBAGE CAN. A 2 week old little girl. Left in a garbage pile – luckily found by someone scavenging through that trash.

There is simply no excuse for this. NONE. Illinois has a safe haven law, which means that unharmed newborns up to seven days old can be safely relinquished to staff at hospitals, police or staffed fire stations, or emergency care facilities with NO QUESTIONS ASKED. Yes, you read that right. If you have a baby and decide you don’t want it or can’t care for it, you can relinquish the baby at a hospital or a staffed police & fire station and nobody will ask any questions. You even have 60 days to change your mind & reclaim your child. Seriously – could it BE any easier? There is absolutely, positively no excuse for abandoning your baby in a trash can or dumpster or bathroom.

I’m just disgusted. And repulsed. This is what our culture has become. We’ve created opportunity after opportunity for people to not have to take responsibility for what they do, and yet people still do the most reprehensible thing. People would rather risk KILLING the baby (or actually killing it) instead of giving it up for adoption. Because they see it as a POSSESSION rather than a human being. I’m not going to get started on why this is (even though I know why *I* believe it is), but we as a society have become less responsible, more selfish, more self-absorbed and have less of a conscience than any society in history. We should get what we want as soon as we want it, not have to suffer any consequences for bad behavior or poor choices and our desires are more important than any other person’s basic human rights.

Stop it. Seriously – STOP IT. If you don’t want your TWO WEEK OLD BABY, figure out what you have to do to relinquish custody – either through adoption or foster care. You’re not ready to be a parent? Fine. Either stop doing what it takes to have a baby (because nobody TURNS UP PREGNANT) or bless an adoptive family with the child they cannot have. Your baby isn’t a possession. It isn’t bad Chinese food you can just toss out when you don’t want it anymore. We need to seriously reevaluate our priorities and values as a culture and get straightened out. Because this mess? Has. To. Stop.