South Carolina named its Safe Haven law after a baby buried alive in a landfill.
Twenty-five years later, that same law saved its seventh newborn of this year.
One more surrender would break the record set twice before.
The Baby Named Daniel Survived Being Buried Alive And Gave South Carolina Its Safe Haven Law
In 2001, a mother in Allendale County dug a hole in an old landfill and buried her newborn son alive.
Rescue workers found him beneath a mound of lime, covered in trash and ant bites, after nearly two hours of searching.
He lived.
Nurses who nursed him back to health named him Daniel.
South Carolina lawmakers named a law after him that same year.
Daniel's Law lets a parent in crisis surrender a newborn up to 60 days old at a hospital, police station, fire station, EMS station, or staffed house of worship.
No prosecution.
No questions asked.
The parent doesn't even have to give a name.
Daniel's mother hid her pregnancy from her own parents out of shame.
She never once sought prenatal care before giving birth alone in a bathroom.
A scared parent in South Carolina doesn't have to hide, and doesn't have to act alone in a bathroom or a landfill.
That law did exactly what it was built to do in Georgetown County on Aug. 24.
Daniel's Law Has Saved Seventy-Eight Newborns Since South Carolina Passed It
A baby boy was born Aug. 21, weighing 7 pounds, 14.3 ounces.
Three days later, on Aug. 24, someone carried him into Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital and handed him to staff.
The South Carolina Department of Social Services confirmed he's safe and living with a licensed foster family.
He's the seventh baby surrendered under Daniel's Law so far this year.
South Carolina's record for a single year is eight, set in 2023 and matched again in 2025.
DSS spokeswoman Connelly-Anne Ragley won't speculate on why more parents are choosing this path.
She has said the agency simply won't guess whether it's rising awareness, rising crisis, or both.
Since online record-keeping began in 2009, 78 babies have been safely surrendered under Daniel's Law statewide.
That's 78 mothers and fathers who didn't do what Daniel's mother did.
South Carolina built the legal infrastructure for that choice on purpose.
Gov. Henry McMaster signed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act in 2023, protecting unborn children starting at the first detectable heartbeat.
Planned Parenthood sued to overturn it.
The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the law anyway.
Lawmakers in Columbia introduced the Unborn Child Protection Act this year to go even further, banning abortion once a pregnancy is clinically diagnosable.
Daniel's Law and the heartbeat law were never separate fights.
One protects a child before birth.
The other makes sure a mother in crisis has somewhere to turn after.
What Governor McMaster Should Do Before Baby Number Eight
Eight surrenders in a single year sounds small next to South Carolina's population.
It isn't small to the eight babies who are alive because of it.
Every one of those babies represents a mother who found a hospital, a fire station, or a police station instead of a landfill.
Some of those babies were born to parents who had never even heard of Daniel's Law until a nurse, a pastor, or a pregnancy center counselor mentioned it in the moment of crisis.
That's the gap South Carolina still has to close.
Daniel grew up because two rescue workers refused to give up a search that could have ended in under an hour.
His name is on a law that's saved dozens of children who will never know his story unless someone tells them.
Gov. Henry McMaster already signed the law protecting these children before birth.
He has the bully pulpit to protect them after birth too.
He fought for the heartbeat law all the way to the state Supreme Court and won.
McMaster can put that same fight behind teaching every hospital worker, pastor, and pregnancy center counselor in South Carolina to say Daniel's name before a scared parent ever needs to hear it.
Sources:
- Christopher Buchanan, "Newborn boy safely surrendered at Georgetown hospital, seventh under SC Safe Haven Act this year," WLTX, August 2026.
- Caitlin Byrd, "8 SC newborns surrendered at safe havens under Daniel's Law in 2025, tying record," Post and Courier, December 28, 2025.
- "Daniel's Law – Safe Haven for Babies," South Carolina Department of Social Services.
- "Gov. Henry McMaster Protects Life, Signs Fetal Heartbeat and Protection From Abortion Act," Office of the Governor of South Carolina, May 25, 2023.
- "1st 2026 baby surrendered under Daniel's Law in S.C. is under Lexington County DSS custody," Lexington County Chronicle, February 17, 2026.
