Legislation Regarding Baby Abandoned by Wildwood Mother Stalls

A criminal hearing for Kaitlin T. Norton, the mother accused of abandoning her newborn son in Ellisville this winter, was scheduled for this week. State legislation aimed at expanding Missouri's "safe haven law," meanwhile, targeting cases such as Norton's, may have lost the momentum needed for passage.

Police said Norton, 19, on Westridge Parc Lane in February on the same day the child was born, before later fleeing to a local hospital.

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If Norton is convicted in the abandonment case, she faces at least five years in prison before qualifying for parole and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report said.

State legislation considered by lawmakers just days after the alleged abandonment incident, meanwhile, has not been formally acted on in more than a month. The proposal, which was sponsored by Democratic State Representatives Kevin McManus and Jacob Hummel, would expand the window mothers can legally and anonymously give up their child at a "safe haven," such as a fire station or hospital, from five days after their child's birth to 45 days.

The proposal was sent to committee in March and has not been formally acted on since March 20. The legislation now sits in the House Rules Committee, a committee designated to handle internal procedural matters, which frequently is referred to by pundits as the place where legislation "goes to die," due in part to the committee's nondescript agenda and duties.