Five children in Utah are alive today because their mothers abandoned them.

It's counterintuitive in a place where many believe that "families are forever," but it is good news.

The children were abandoned under the state's child relinquishment law, which allows mothers to leave their unwanted newborns at hospitals or staffed fire stations. The law may appear to grant bad mothers amnesty, but it is about protecting children.

In an ideal world, every child would be wanted by his or her parents. But there are women who may not want people to know they were pregnant, or mothers who just cannot cope with a baby.

Without the law, which was passed in 2001, these children may have been left to die somewhere. In the past, newborns have been left in such places as a bathroom at Salt Lake City International Airport and a miniature golf course in St. George. One teenage mother stuffed her infant into a dresser drawer to hide the child from her parents.

Once a child is relinquished and the mother provides a medical history for the infant, the baby is put up for adoption by the Division of Child and Family Services.

The only problem with the system is that it has not been well advertised until now. Sen. Patrice Arent, the Salt Lake City Democrat who sponsored the legislation when she was a state representative, told reporters that the mothers likely to abandon their babies don't read the Utah State Code and would not know about the program. She is right. And this is a case in which ignorance can be deadly.

An advertising campaign has now been launched to get the word out to women that there are better options for their infants. There is also a Web site, www.utahsafehaven.org, that provides information for the mothers as well as for people who would receive abandoned infants.

It would be nice if there were no need for this law in Utah, but Arent's measure has given five little ones a second chance at a better life.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A10.

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