Newborn baby left abandoned on Trenton porch

TRENTON » Police are searching for the mother of a male infant who was left on a city porch Sunday afternoon.

Officials say the child was born within the past two days and left on a residential porch in the city’s West Ward. The infant was found in a duffle bag on the front porch of a home by residents who heard the baby crying outside around noon and called police.

The child was taken to the hospital and is in good health, according to law enforcement authorities involved in finding the baby’s mother.

It’s unclear why the child’s mother thought it best to abandon the infant on a stranger’s porch, especially considering state law allows parents to give up an infant without legal consequences.

According to New Jersey’s Safe Haven Infant Protection Act, a parent may give up an unwanted infant safely, legally and anonymously. In fact, law states that a parent could take a baby less than 30 days old to any hospital emergency room, police station, fire station or ambulance without facing legal penalties for giving up the child. The state would then place the infant in a foster or pre-adoptive home.

Police say the kid, who is either a black or Hispanic male, is now in the custody of the hospital and the Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

Anyone with information regarding the mother of the child and her whereabouts is asked to call police at 609989-4155. Or use the anonymous tip line at 609-989-3663.