BERLIN, February 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An alternative to abandonment or abortion is now available in several German cities – a “drop-hatch” designed to allow mothers to deliver an unwanted child anonymously through a small door in a hospital wall. Within one minute, health-care workers hear an alarm and retrieve the child.
The hatch is an invention of a private organization called Sternipark, who opened the first hatches in April of 2000 in Hamburg in response to the discovery of a fifth child who had been abandoned in a garbage bin that year. Germany reports approximately 50 abandoned babies per year. While abortion is technically illegal in Germany, it is allowed to mothers up to 12 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape or a threat to the mothers health; first trimester abortions are legal if a woman has a certificate showing that she sought professional help. The drop-hatch contains a letter addressed to the woman in several languages, as well as means for identifying the child should the woman wish to learn news of, or reclaim the baby. If the mother does not contact the hospital, the baby is given up for adoption after eight weeks. Sternipark spokeswoman, Franziska Klotz, said that German hospitals are increasingly allowing the option of nameless child-bearing, an integral part of encouraging young women to carry their children to term rather than abort them. Many abandoned children have signs that they were delivered at home, without assistance. “When women call us to give birth anonymously, we can help them, advise them, encourage them before, during and after the birth. There is thus a much greater chance that these women finally decide to keep their babies,” she said.
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