In the ‘Baby June’ case, a pattern but no precedent. Why do mothers let their newborns die?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — She gave birth in secret, perhaps in a hotel bathroom, entirely alone.

She was poor or financially dependent, the baby’s father not in the picture.

In the months leading up to the birth, she denied she was pregnant, or struggled with a deep ambivalence over what would soon become her fate.