‘BABY SAVER’ FACILITIES: DRAFT DA BILL OUT FOR COMMENT

‘BABY SAVER’ FACILITIES: DRAFT DA BILL OUT FOR COMMENT

• 17 October 2025
• Social Development
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 28 November 2025, National Assembly Speaker Thokozile Didiza gazetted a notice stating that the DA’s Alexandra Abrahams has decided not to proceed with her plans for tabling the Bill. Although it is not clear why, Abrahams’ recent appointment as Trade, Industry & Competition Deputy Minister may have prompted the move. 2) On 5 December 2025, Parliament gazetted a notice announcing that DA MP Nazley Sharif now intends tabling the Bill, informed by input received during the public consultation process. 

The DA’s Alexandra Abrahams has announced her intention to table a Bill in Parliament that – if processed, enacted and operationalised – would give legal recognition to and regulate ‘baby savers’ and ‘baby safe havens’. This is according to the procedurally required pre-tabling explanatory summary, which also calls for input by 16 November 2025.

It is envisaged that the proposed new piece of legislation regulate would also exclude the safe relinquishment of a newborn baby at such a facility from the principal statute’s definition of ‘abandoned child’ – clarifying that safe relinquishing a newborn would not constitute a crime.

However, this would not indemnify anyone relinquishing a newborn baby to a safe haven from the consequences of having committed an offence against that baby before its safe relinquishment.

• explanatory summary

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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