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Historically, many cultures practiced abandonment of infants, often called "infant exposure." Children were left on hillsides, in the wilderness, near churches, and in other public places. If taken up by others, the children might join another family either as slaves or as free family members. Roman societies in particular chose slaves to raise their children rather than family members, who were often indifferent towards their children. Although being found by others would allow children who were abandoned to often survive, exposure is sometimes compared to infanticide—as described by Tertullian in his Apology: "it is certainly the more cruel way to kill... by exposure to cold and hunger and dogs." Despite the comparison, other sources report that infanticide and exposure were viewed as morally different in ancient times.

In the early middle ages parents who did not want to raise their children gave them to monasteries along with a small fee, an act known as oblation. In times of social stress monasteries often received large numbers of children. By the high middle ages oblation was less common and something that was more often arranged privately between the monastery and the parents of the child. Sometimes medieval hospitals took care of abandoned children at the community's expense, but some refused to do so on the grounds that being willing to accept abandoned children would increase abandonment rates. Medieval laws in Europe governing child abandonment, as for example the Visigothic Code, often prescribed that the person who had taken up the child was entitled to the child's service as a slave. Conscripting or enslaving children into armies and labor pools often occurred as a consequence of war or pestilence when many children were left parentless. Abandoned children then became the ward of the state, military organization, or religious group. When this practice happened en masse, it had the advantage of ensuring the strength and continuity of cultural and religious practices in medieval society.

19th Century Europe saw the rise of foundling homes and increased abandonment of children to these homes. These numbers continued to rise and peaked when 5% of all births resulted in abandonment in France around 1830. The national reaction to this was to limit the resources provided by foundling homes and switch to foster homes instead such that fewer children would die within overcrowded foundling homes during infancy. As access to contraception increased and economic conditions improved in Europe towards the end of the 19th century the numbers of children being abandoned declined.

Abandonment increased towards the end of the 19th century, particularly in the United States. The largest migration of abandoned children in history took place in the United States between 1853 and 1929. Over one hundred and twenty thousand orphans (not all of whom were intentionally abandoned) were shipped west on railroad cars, where families agreed to foster the children in exchange for their use as farmhands, household workers, etc. Orphan trains were highly popular as a source of free labor. The sheer size of the displacement as well as complications and exploitation that occurred gave rise to new agencies and a series of laws that promoted adoption rather than indenture. By 1945, adoption was formulated as a legal act with consideration of the child’s best interests. The origin of the move toward secrecy and the sealing of all adoption and birth records began when Charles Loring Brace introduced the concept to prevent children from the orphan trains from returning to or being reclaimed by their parents.

State Programs for Facilitating Anonymous Child Abandonment

• Anonymous Birthing allows pregnant mothers to give birth to their child without revealing their identity or claiming any ownership over or legal obligation to the child. Different countries wait varying lengths of time from 2-8 weeks before putting the child up for adoption to allow mothers to return to the hospital and reclaim the child. Anonymous birthing is most often implemented as measure to prevent neonaticide and has been successful in multiple countries. Police in Austria report a 57% drop in neonaticides after the country passed a law allowing for anonymous birthing and free delivery in 2001. Anonymous birthing provides the opportunity for mothers to disclose relevant health history to later be shared with the child and adoptive family, as well as access to hospital care to reduce risk during birth. In some states, France for example, mothers who choose anonymous birthing undergo counselling and are informed of available support structures to help them keep the child. Mothers who are seeking to anonymously abandon their child at birth may avoid anonymous birthing due to increased interaction with hospital staff and the possibility of undergoing counselling.
• Baby Boxes provide a safe and anonymous way to abandon children, typically newborns, rather than resorting to infant exposure or neonaticide. Baby boxes can be found in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and the United States. Advantages of baby boxes include a greater degree of anonymity for parents abandoning their children and a guarantee that the child will be found and attended to. However, children are sometimes placed in baby boxes with existing issue or injury and baby boxes are under-utilized and costly to operate.
• Safe Haven Laws allow parents of a child, typically a newborn child but age can vary, to abandon the child at a place of local authority such as a hospital, fire station, or police station with no further question. Some states allow the parent to reclaim the child within a certain timeframe. Safe Haven Laws passed in the United States in 1999 and have since been adopted in Canada, Japan, France, and Slovakia. It is debated if safe haven laws prevent child abandonment or neonaticide. As with baby boxes, one study suggests that mothers in rural areas are not willing to travel to abandon their children and would not be willing to travel to a hospital to do so. As of 2017, 3,317 babies have been surrendered via safe haven laws in the United States.