Two babies were found dead in a bathroom at the Bernice Lavin Early Childhood Education Center on the campus Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, this week.
On Thursday, just before 7:00 pm, two newborn baby girls were found unresponsive in a bathroom and were immediately rushed to Lurie Children’s Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. A janitorial crew discovered a trail of blood while cleaning the bathroom on the first floor of the hospital. The trail led to a cabinet, where the crew was horrified to find a black trash bag containing the two infants.
There have been no comments on the girls’ cause of death such as whether they died as the result of a miscarriage or were stillborn. Authorities say the mother experienced a “medical emergency” that led to an unexpected delivery of the babies who were then placed in a garbage bag and then into a cabinet. She was identified as a 29-year-old who works at the daycare, and she was seen bleeding in an upstairs bathroom soon before her children were discovered.
Bernice E. Lavin Childhood Education Center said in a statement, “We are heartbroken by the tragic situation that occurred at the Bernice E. Lavin Childhood Education Center when a staff member experienced a medical emergency that resulted in the unanticipated delivery of newborn twin babies.”
Mary Kate Zander, Executive Director of Illinois Right to Life, which posted about the incident on Instagram, explained, “We don’t have a lot of background information, but this is so consistent with what we are seeing in our culture right now, just this total lack of value placed on life.”
View this post on Instagram
Zander also connects the incident to the importance of informing women that there are help and resources for them that don’t include killing their children – inside or outside the womb.
“Information about abortion would not have helped this woman who just delivered two babies alone in the bathroom. Information about crisis pregnancy centers [and how they could have helped her] probably would have.”
Another resource, which every state has, is a Safe Haven law. Some states even have Safe Haven baby boxes. The Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act was passed in Illinois in 2001. The Act provides a mechanism for the safe surrender of newborn infants to first responders, preserving the anonymity of parents. It protects the parents from facing any civil or criminal liability for the act of relinquishing their newborns. Each state has its own parameters for Safe Haven laws, which you can find here.
According to Zander, information like this is as accessible as it should be because “There’s just so much abortion language being thrown around right now that it drowns out the access women have to resources.”
Legislators are so focused on pushing the abortion laws to the extreme, that they fail to place any emphasis on the legal protections already in place for women and their children in Illinois.
Editor’s Note 7/8/23: This article was updated when more information became available from authorities.
