A Perry, Iowa police detective opened a trash bag outside a daycare and found a fully developed baby girl already dead.
State and Dallas County officials say a law already on the books in Iowa could have saved that same baby's life.
Most people in Iowa still have never heard of the law that could have kept her alive.
Perry Police Say Stephanie Ubaldo's Newborn Suffered Multiple Head Injuries
Officers were called to Acorns and Oaks Child Care in Perry after reports of a woman suffering severe bleeding.
Paramedics rushed 20-year-old Stephanie Ubaldo to the hospital.
While first responders treated her, a Perry police detective searched the property.
Inside a trash bag, sitting in a can outside the daycare, the detective found a newborn girl who was already dead.
The baby had multiple injuries to her head.
Ubaldo did not have a child enrolled at Acorns and Oaks, she worked there.
Investigators allege she gave birth at the daycare and put the newborn in the trash bag before anyone realized she had been pregnant.
Dallas County prosecutors charged Ubaldo with first-degree murder, and she is now being held in the Dallas County Jail.
Ubaldo is presumed innocent and has not yet stood trial.
Iowa's Safe Haven Act Has Given Parents a Legal Way Out Since 2002
That is exactly the tragedy Iowa's Safe Haven Act was written to prevent.
The law, passed in 2002, lets a parent, or someone with a parent's permission, surrender a baby younger than 90 days old with no questions and no criminal charges.
A mother can walk into any hospital, health care facility, or fire station in Iowa and hand over her newborn.
Iowa also runs four dedicated Safe Haven Boxes, heated drop-off ports built into the walls of Mercy One in Des Moines and fire stations in Windsor Heights, Norwalk, and Fort Dodge.
A parent can even call 911 and have someone come to them instead.
Since the law took effect in 2002, 81 babies have been surrendered safely in Iowa, including one boy and one girl already in 2026.
Diana Lang runs Iowans for Adoption, and she says the law only works if parents actually know it exists.
"What we have realized is that there aren't a lot of people that know about the Safe Haven Act," Lang said.
"So it only makes sense that if people know that it's an option, that they could drop their baby up to 90 days at any one of those locations, and then they wouldn't be charged with a crime," Lang said.
Lang said the babies who are surrendered safely go on to be adopted into families who want them.
Every State Now Has Its Own Version of the Safe Haven Law
Iowa is not fighting this battle alone.
Texas passed the nation's first Safe Haven law in 1999, and every state in the country has since followed with a version of its own.
Nationally, more than 4,600 babies have been safely surrendered under these laws, according to the Lozier Institute.
Indiana went further in 2016 and installed Safe Haven Baby Boxes at fire stations and hospitals statewide, and it has not recorded a single infant abandonment death since.
Colorado lawmakers extended their state's surrender window from three days to thirty days in 2025, after a newborn was abandoned in a car seat on Christmas Eve and a mother was sentenced to 35 years for killing her baby the following month.
Every one of those laws exists for the same reason Iowa's does, to give a scared parent a way out that does not end with a dead baby.
One Safe Haven Box Would Have Kept This Baby Alive
Iowa did not fail this baby, awareness did.
The state built hospitals, fire stations, a hotline, and four dedicated boxes so a scared parent never has to make the choice Ubaldo is accused of making.
None of that mattered because too many people have never heard it exists.
That is not a policy failure, it is a communication failure, and it is costing children their lives.
Every pregnancy center, every church bulletin, and every school health class in Iowa should have the Safe Haven Act on a poster, because the alternative is what a Perry police detective found in a trash bag outside a daycare.
Iowa lawmakers do not need a new bill, they need every hospital, church, and school in the state repeating four words, no shame, no questions.
Iowa already built a safer place for that baby than a trash can, and someone just has to tell every scared mother in the state it exists.
Sources:
- Skyler Stamps, "Perry Woman Charged in Connection With Baby Found Dead in Trash Bag at Daycare Center," WHO13, September 17, 2026.
- "Mother Charged With Murder of Newborn Found Dead at Iowa Daycare," KCRG, September 17, 2026.
- "Safe Haven Laws: An Invitation to Life," Lozier Institute.
- "Colorado Parents Can Turn Over Newborn Babies Up to 30 Days Old Without Facing Abandonment Charges Under Updated Law," Colorado Sun, April 29, 2026.
