---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 AND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SAFE ARMS FOR BABIES."
description: "According to the Children’s Bureau within the Administration for Children & Families, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have enacted infant safe haven laws that allow a parent to surrender a newborn without fear of prosecution."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "SB 161"
citation: "Delaware SB 161 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Larry Lambert", "Marie Pinkney", "Sherry Dorsey Walker"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 10
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2021-06-03"
last_action: "2021-10-14"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/cfc24525-1b63-4b5c-82f8-8255cb2f08e6"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=78788"
source_hash: "018f0ec795fb53dc9b74f0bdce5a1b672101a85a2c8d9579e7f626b870f3a5f3"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware SB 161 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 AND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SAFE ARMS FOR BABIES.

According to the Children’s Bureau within the Administration for Children & Families, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have enacted infant safe haven laws that allow a parent to surrender a newborn without fear of prosecution.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=78788&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB161)
2. **HA 1 to SB 161** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=78984&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Larry Lambert — primary (person)
- Marie Pinkney — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Charles S Postles Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- Eric Morrison — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Kendra Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Richard G. Collins — cosponsor (person)
- Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-06-03** Introduced and Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-09** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 3 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-06-10** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2021-06-11** Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-16** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 8 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-06-24** Amendment HA 1 to SB 161 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2021-06-29** Amendment HA 1 to SB 161 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2021-06-29** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2021-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2021-10-14** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/cfc24525-1b63-4b5c-82f8-8255cb2f08e6`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).