PORTLAND (AP) – In a move aimed at preventing infant abductions, Maine’s largest hospital has stopped collecting information about births and passing it on to newspapers.

The decision by Maine Medical Center reflects a national trend as hospitals focus on the safety of new parents and babies because of rare and high-profile abductions.

Mercy Hospital, also in Portland, says it probably will follow suit in the near future.

Data compiled by the Center for Missing & Exploited Children over a 25-year period ending in July found that 254 infants younger than 6 months were abducted. The only Maine abduction during that period occurred in 1996, when a woman posing as a nurse took a newborn from a Bangor hospital.