§ 19-10A-1.Short title

It is the official name of Chapter 10A of Title 19, Georgia’s safe-haven law for newborns. The chapter lets a mother leave a baby no more than 45 days old with on-duty staff at a medical facility, fire station, police station, public safety vehicle or ambulance service, or in a newborn safety device, without being prosecuted under the three criminal statutes named in § 19-10A-4.

Yes. Chapter 10A, known as the Eliza Jane Warner Act, is Georgia’s safe-haven law. Under § 19-10A-4, a mother who leaves her newborn — no more than 45 days old — with on-duty staff at a designated place, or in a newborn safety device, can’t be prosecuted under the three criminal statutes that section names, one of which is the child-abandonment law in § 19-10-1.

The chapter was amended in 2026, effective July 1, 2026. That act touched every section of Chapter 10A, including this short-title section. The chapter was first enacted in 2002 and was also amended in 2017. To see what the law says now, read § 19-10A-2 for the definitions and § 19-10A-4 for the protections.

The rules are in Chapter 10A of Title 19, which runs from § 19-10A-1 through § 19-10A-8. The protection from prosecution is in § 19-10A-4, the list of approved places is in § 19-10A-2, what happens to the baby afterward is in § 19-10A-6, and the requirements for newborn safety devices are in § 19-10A-8.

Section 19-10A-3 states the purpose: to prevent injuries to and deaths of newborn children caused by a mother who abandons the newborn. The chapter gives a mother in crisis a lawful way to hand her baby over to people who can care for it, and it protects her from certain prosecutions when she does so as the law describes.