One word can make all the difference.

In July, Nebraska passed a version of what has become known as a “safe-haven law,” which allows a parent to surrender an infant without fear of prosecution.  Such laws were adopted by every state over the last decade after numerous reports of babies left to die in trash bins or plastic bags. But only Nebraska’s version, which took effect in July, extended the protection to “children,” meaning up to age 18, rather than specifying a maximum age of a few days or months.

According to today’s New York Times, this choice of language has provoked Nebraska’s governor to call call a special session of the state legislature next month, immediately after the elections, to rewrite the statute.  As the Times reports:

On Tuesday, a 17-year-old boy was left by his mother and stepfather in Lincoln, and a 15-year-old girl was abandoned by her father in Omaha. That brought the number of children left in state hands since Sept. 1 — usually by parents or guardians who said the child was uncontrollable and violent — to 24, including one who was left at a police station rather than a hospital as the law dictates.

“We all hoped this wouldn’t happen,” Mr. Heineman said of the continued drop-offs. “Now circumstances dictate that we act.”

The cost of a special session has been estimated at more than $80,000, and the state’s “citizen-legislators” will have to take time off from their private jobs.