Catching up to the rest of the country, the state of Nebraska this summer finally enacted its own "safe haven" law to protect infants from abandonment. So far so good. By establishing a network of state-certified hospitals where parents can safely leave unwanted newborns without fear of prosecution, lawmakers in Lincoln sought to eliminate instances of total abandonment, which often end tragically.

But despite having 49 other states' safe haven laws as a model for their own bill, Nebraska legislators screwed up. In an effort to broaden support for the bill, they broadened the definition of who it covered, so that any "child" was eligible for the safe haven. Because that term is often interpreted to include all minors up to 18 years of age, parents now had the ability to legally abandon their older kids and teens.

As it turns out, some parents leaped at the chance. Since July, at least 16 children, some of them teenagers, have been abandoned at the safe haven centers.

"This was never the intent of the bill," said Republican state Sen. Arnie Stuthman in USA Today. "We really opened a can of worms."

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