
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 9, 1993                   TAG: 9311090170
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

ABANDONED NEWBORNS SWELL FOSTER CARE ROLLS

Thousands of babies across the country have been abandoned in their hospital cribs by parents unwilling or unable to take them home.

They are the tiniest victims of crack cocaine, poverty, homelessness and AIDS, and one reason the number of children in foster care is inching toward half a million.

Researchers counted 22,000 abandoned infants in the nation's hospitals in 1991, according to a draft report from the Department of Health and Human Services. It is the first national survey on the babies and researchers said it probably underestimates the problem. - Associated Press

by CNB