LEWISTON – A baby born in the city last month was abandoned under Maine’s Safe Haven law and is in state custody.

The law, which allows parents to walk away without repercussions when they leave a newborn with medical personnel or police, has been used fewer than five times since it took effect in 2002, according to officials.

The baby is called Alexis Safe Haven in ads seeking to notify either parent of pending legal action. The court file remains sealed along with any details – where baby Alexis was found, by whom, and when.

“It’s all protected information,” Department of Health and Human Services spokesman John Martins said Wednesday.

According to DHHS policy, Save Haven babies are placed with “resource families” who would be willing to work toward reunification or, if parental rights are terminated, to adopt the baby.

A Lewiston Police Department spokesman said he didn’t have information about the baby. A spokeswoman at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center said that, to her knowledge, the baby had not been left there.

A Central Maine Medical Center spokesman said that without a name, it would be difficult to track down information, and even then, the hospital might run into confidentiality issues.

A legal ad that ran Dec. 26 and Jan. 2 in the Sun Journal offers only that the baby was born in Lewiston on Dec. 1. Both parents – “Save Haven Father, whereabouts unknown” and “Safe Haven Mother, whereabouts unknown” – are offered legal counsel and are notified of a DHHS petition for a Child Protection Order and a hearing on the petition for termination of parental rights at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 12 in front of Lewiston District Court Judge John Beliveau.

Beliveau said it would be the second Safe Haven case he has presided over. The first case was several years ago. He couldn’t reveal any information related to either child. Martins was aware of a third case where a baby had been left in southern Maine.

Forty-seven states and Puerto Rico have Safe Haven laws, according to www.childwelfare.gov.

Former state Sen. Marge Kilkelly of Dresden, who sponsored Maine’s law in the Legislature, said she remembered there was a lot of debate at the time, people wondering how often the law would be used.

“My response was, ‘If it’s one in 20 years, that’s OK,'” she said Wednesday. “If it saves a child’s life and also supports what for some parents is the best decision they can make, it’s done its job.”

In Maine, parents can leave a baby less than a month old with police, hospital staff and medical service providers such as dentists and chiropractors. The person receiving the baby is allowed to ask questions about its date of birth and medical history but isn’t allowed to detain the parents or contact them in the future.

Without that option, “The baby would end up in a trash can, buried in the backyard, in a situation (where) maybe it was found, maybe it wasn’t,” Kilkelly said.

It’s impossible to know what the parents are going through, she added. Maybe they don’t have any money, maybe no family support.

She called it “critically important” to keep a lid on details like the time and place where the Lewiston baby was found.

“It would be difficult for the next person to feel like it truly was a safe haven” if word got out, Kilkelly said.

In this case, “A child was born, a child was placed into a safe haven, one or both parents have the space to make the best decision,” she said.

That’s what the law was created for, she said.