Abilene becomes 1st in Texas to host anonymous program for parents to surrender infants: Safe Haven Baby Box
Published: Wed, 04/03/24
Abilene becomes 1st in Texas to host anonymous program for parents to surrender infants: Safe Haven Baby Box
Big Country homepage.com
by: Karley Cross
Posted:
Updated:
ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Abilene officially has a Safe Haven Baby Box at one of its fire stations. This programs provides a safe and anonymous alternative to parents wishing to surrender their children.
The baby box, built by an Indiana company, was installed at Abilene’s Fire Station No. 7 Tuesday on North Pioneer Drive.
Under the Baby Moses Law, fire stations and hospitals have been labeled as “baby safe” sites, where parents unable to provide for infants 60 days and younger may surrender the child anonymously and safely.
Chief Cande Flores with the Abilene Fire Department (AFD) told KTAB/KRBC, “We’re in the business of saving lives, and we have lots of equipment to do that, and to us, this is another piece of the equipment that allows the public an opportunity to go to somewhere… Anonymous. It’s safe, and they can provide something for their child that, normally, they cannot.”
These boxes are designed to improve the safety, security, and anonymity of the process of giving up a child. The baby is placed in a temperature-controlled “box,” for a matter of minutes before an authorized party retrieves the infant.
Monica Kelsey, founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes said there are more than 200 safe boxes across 16 states, and Abilene is the first Texas city to provide this type of care.
“We’ll probably have over 300 boxes by the end of the year. We call it a blessing of the box, that we just blessed the very first box in the State of Texas. It’s an amazing day today,” said Kelsey.
West Texans For Life, an Abilene-based pro-life group, put in the work to bring the program here and even raised about $20,000 to do so.
The Safe Haven Baby Box is located at Fire Station No. 7 at 431 North Pioneer Drive.